Sunday 23 August 2020

4 Muharram - 1442

2 Riyals

www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 25 | Number 8358

Cheering for Paris! Ooredoo, the network of heroes.

BUSINESS | 13 PENMAG | 15 SPORT | 20

'Transformed'

PSG allow Qatar

to bask in

limelight

Classifieds

and Services

section

included

Climate fund for poor

nations vows to drive

green COVID-19

recovery

TODAY'S FIXTURE

Bayern Munich vs PSG

Kick off at 10:00pm Qatar time

FINAL

Qatar-Germany trade ties strong, up by 10% last yearTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The bilateral trade between Qatar and Germany reached $2.3bn in 2019, witnessing a double-digit growth of 10 percent compared to $2.1bn in 2018, showing the strong economic ties between two countries.

This came during Qatari-German Business Forum organised by Qatar Chamber and Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry through video conference.

Under the patronage of Chairman of Qatar Chamber (QC) Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim Al Thani, the Qatari-German Business Forum kicked off on Thursday through video conference, the QC said in a statement.

The forum was presided over by Sheikh Khalifa and President of the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry Peter Ramsauer, in the presence of Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Germany, H E Mohammed bin Jaham Al Kuwari; Vice-President of the Arab-German Chamber of Com-merce and Industry, Olaf Hoffmann; General Secretary of the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Abdulaziz Al Mikhlafi; and Qatar Chamber General Manager, Saleh bin Hamad Al Sharqi.

During the forum, both sides reviewed trade and investment cooperation and discussed estab-lishing alliances and partnerships

that support both economies.Addressing the forum, Sheikh

Khalifa stressed the forum’s impor-tance in shedding light on bolstering cooperation between Qatari and German businessmen and exploring new opportunities between private sector of both countries, especially under the current challenges related to the outbreak of COVID-19 and its economic impacts.

Sheikh Khalifa praised the strong and close relation between the State of Qatar and the Federal Republic of Germany, especially in economic and commercial aspects, noting that their bilateral trade grew by 10 percent, from $2.1bn in 2018 to $2.3bn last year. “This means that Germany is a very essential trade partner for Qatar,” he added.

Sheikh Khalifa noted that the two countries’ bilateral relations have evolved considerably following the visit of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to Germany in 2018 which witnessed the announcement to allocate investments of ¤10bn to support the German economy during the next five years and signing of many important agreements that contributed to further developing cooperation ties and stimulating investments between both countries.

Regarding mutual investments, Sheikh Khalifa said that there are about 300 German companies operating in Qatar, whether with Qatari partners

or with full German capital, which are active in many fields such as rail, trade, contracting, services, communication, infrastructure, medical equipment and devices and others.

“Germany is one of the most important investment destinations for Qatar, where the value of Qatari invest-ments in Germany exceeded ¤25bn in many sectors including the automotive industry, telecommunications, hospi-tality, banking and other important sectors,” he noted.

QC Chairman pointed out that Qatar’s economy offers a plenty of investment opportunities that attract foreign investors and international companies, especially in the presence of a set of economic laws and legislations that provide a safe and stable environment for investment.

Elaborating these laws, he said that they include the law regulating the investment of non-Qatari capital in economic activity, which provides several investment incentives for non-Qatari investors, including the allo-cation of land, exemption from income tax, exemption from custom duties and freedom of transfer and other incen-tives, adding that Qatar enjoyed a highly developed infrastructure and state-of-the-art economic and free zones and offered a wide range of attractive incentives for foreign investors. �P3

Chairman of Qatar Chamber, Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim Al Thani, during the Qatari-German Business Forum.

MoCI clarifies about price variation of goods in supermarketsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) has clarified in a statement on social media that they set maximum price for commodities such as vege-tables, fruits, fish and some basic commodities. As for other commodities, their prices may vary from one supermarket to the other.

The clarification came in response to many queries and messages received from con-sumers about price dis-crepancy between super-markets and the role of the ministry in controlling prices.

“We would like to clarify that the Ministry sets the maximum prices for vege-tables, fruits and fish, in addition to other basic com-modities. As for the rest of the other commodities, their prices may vary from one outlet to the other. Accord-ingly, we advise consumers to compare prices and quality between outlets and take the appropriate decision when purchasing,” the Ministry tweeted yesterday.

The prices for basic com-modities like vegetable, fruit and fish can be accessed at the Ministry’s website. The min-istry urged consumers to report any violations and sug-gestions through call center: 16001.

MADLSA to train govt employees on fourth phase of reopeningQNA — DOHA

The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs (MADLSA), represented by the Institute of Public Adminis-tration, has announced its read-iness to start its training programme at its headquarters, targeting government agency employees, in the event of imple-mentation of the fourth phase of Qatar’s precautionary plan.

In this context, the Institute of Public Administration pre-pared a training plan consistent with the precautionary measures followed in the country to confront the coro-navirus (COVID-19), and the training plan included the implementation of 290 training programmes at the Ministry’s headquarters targeting 4,300 participants, in addition to 157 online training programs tar-geting 1,570 participants.

An organised plan was developed by the Institute of Public Administration in accordance with specific standards and conditions, rep-resented in applying social dis-tancing between trainees and reducing the number of those present in each training room,

adhering to all precautionary measures during the periods of training programs, so that the number of participants in one room does not exceed 10.

The Institute is taking pre-cautions by organising the building entry and exit process, with the obligation for visitors to wear masks and show Ehteraz application when entering the building, as well as adhering to elevator use instructions.

The Ministry has also developed a gradual work plan in the event of the return of training programmes, as the number of programmes and the number of trainees will gradually increase, bringing the total of programmes to 20 per week, in addition to increasing the number of partici-pants to 20 participants.

Employees of government agencies can register for training programmes through MAWARED system.

The trainee must obtain the approval of his employer to reg-ister in the programs of the Institute of Public Adminis-tration. In the event that the country does not shift to the fourth phase, the Ministry will increasing remote training to cover training needs at this stage.

QRCS supports 22 countries in COVID-19 fightTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has launched a large scale international relief initiative to implement a series of COVID-19 control projects in 22 countries, benefiting some 320,000 persons.

The list of target countries includes Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Tajikistan, Mon-golia, and Laos, Ethiopia, Chad, Senegal, Mauritania, Côte d’Ivoire,

Mali, Sierra Leone, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Venezuela, El Salvador, Peru, Panama and Vanuatu.

A budget of QR2,236,827 was allocated for the scheme, which will be implemented directly by QRCS’ foreign rep-resentation offices and mis-sions, in cooperation with the host fellow National Societies.

Chief Executive Director and Acting General Director of Relief

and International Development Division, Eng. Ibrahim Abdullah Al Maliki, said: “The initiative is aimed at backing the efforts exerted by those countries to reduce the spread of the virus, alle-viate its impact on the populations, provide health protection supplies for ambulance and emergency personnel, and support health facilities and services to be able to provide care for the suspected and confirmed cases.” �P2

GNA Presidential Council praises Qatar, Turkey for supporting LibyaQNA — TRIPOLI

The Presidential Council of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) praised the role of the State of Qatar and Turkey in supporting the legitimate government and the Libyan people during the current crisis.

This came in a statement issued by the GNA Presidency Council following a meeting headed the Council’s Chairman Faiz Al Sarraj, and attended by Vice President Ahmed Maitiq, and members Mohamed Ammari Zayed and Ahmed Hamzah. The Statement was carried by Libya’s

news agency yesterday, one day after the GNA and the Tobruk Assembly of Representatives, announced an immediate cease-fire in the country.

The council extended thanks to the Republic of Turkey, the

State of Qatar, and the brotherly and friendly countries that sup-ported the position of the Gov-ernment of National Accord and supported the Libyan people during the current crisis, the statement said.

In its statement, the Council affirmed that the modern civil state is an irreversible option, stressing its steadfast position rejecting the militarisation of the state, in acknowledgement to the blood of the martyrs, in response to the demand of the Libyans, and in order to preserve the security, unity and sovereignty of Libya.

The Libyan Presidential Council affirmed “the importance of resuming the political process on clear grounds in which there is no place for those whose hands have been stained with the blood of Libyans, and whoever has committed violations that

amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and does not waive the application of justice against them.”

The statement also stressed the need to resume production and exportation in the oil fields and ports to support the Libyan economy, meet the needs of the Libyans and alleviate their suffering.

It emphasized that the parlia-mentary and presidential elections in the country are the goal of the Presidency Council to reach a stable, permanent political stage, provided that they are conducted according to a sound constitutional rule agreed upon by the Libyans.

The Presidential Council of the Libyan Government of National Accord stressed its steadfast position rejecting the militarisation of the state.

Council affirmed the importance of resuming the political process and stressed the need to resume production and export of oil to meet the needs of the Libyans.

Paris St Germain players taking part in a training session at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon, Portugal yesterday, on the eve of their UEFA Champions League final against Bayern Munich.

PSG gear up for UEFA Champions League final

Qatari-German Business Forum reviewed trade and investment cooperation and discussed establishing alliances and partnerships that support both economies.

Germany is one of the most important investment destinations for Qatar and the value of Qatari investments in Germany exceeded €25bn.There are about 300 German companies operating in Qatar, whether with Qatari partners or with full German capital.Qatar's economic laws and legislations provide a safe and stable environment for investment.

02 SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020HOME

FAJR SUNRISE 03.48 am 05.09 am

W A L R U WA I S : 29o↗ 37o W A L K H O R : 27o↗ 37o W D U K H A N : 30o↗ 38o W WA K R A H : 28o↗ 37o W M E S A I E E D 28o↗ 37o W A B U S A M R A 25o↗ 40o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 06:45 – 19:11 LOW TIDE 02:33–14:20

Hazy to misty at places at first becomes hot daytime with some clouds.

Minimum Maximum34oC 39oC

ZUHR

MAGHRIB

11.38 am06.09 pm

ASR

ISHA

03.07 pm07.39 pm

Qatar condemns bombings in IraqQNA — DOHA

Qatar has voiced its strong condemnation and denunci-ation of the two car bombings in Saladin Governorate, northern Iraq, killing two security officers and wounding a number of civilians.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement reit-erated the firm position of Qatar on rejecting violence and terrorism.

The statement expressed the condolences of the Qatar to the families of the two victims and to the government and people of Iraq.

HMC encourages people to stay connectedTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has encouraged people to stay connected with their friends and family and give them emotional support during isolation due to COVID-19.

In a social media message, HMC has said, “People diag-nosed with COVID-19 deserve compassionate care, helping them stay connected with their loved ones by phone; video or messaging can provide comfort during isolation.”

HMC also reminded people that it is important to take care of mental health during the time of uncertainty.

“It is important to take care of your mental health and well-being. Maintain a balanced diet and keep active, stay connected with family and friends via digital communications, establish a daily routine and get adequate sleep,” said a awareness message.

“It is normal to feel fearful

and anxious at this time. Talking about your feelings will lessen your distress,” it added.

HMC has urged to seek support through the Mental Health Helpline 16000 if needed. It further said, “If you feel stressed or anxious, talk to a family member or friend, or call the Mental Health Helpline on 16000 to speak to a healthcare professional.”

The helpline is available from Sunday to Thursday from 8am to 7pm and on Saturday from 8am to 3pm. People can call 16000, press 2 for English, press 3 for HMC medical

services and press 1 for medical consultation. Mental health staff managing the helpline speaks a range of languages and every effort will be made to enable callers to communicate in their language of choice, where possible.

The helpline is staffed by a team of mental health profes-sionals who can provide assessment and support to callers through four main cat-egories: Children and parents, adults, older people and frontline healthcare workers. The helpline aims to provide an easily-accessible support line for people in need of profes-sional advice and care.

In collaboration with Min-istry of Public Health and Primary Health Care Corpo-ration, the Mental Health Service in HMC launched the new helpline in May to provide support for people experiencing mental health problems as a result of the current COVID-19.

What does precision medicine mean for Qatar?THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar has the unique ability to be among the world’s top producers of biomedical discoveries, according to Dr. Khalid Fakhro, Acting Chief of Research at Sidra Medicine and Director of Sidra Medi-cine’s Precision Medicine Programme.

Tailored, personalised, genomic medicine as well as targeted therapy are all words commonly associated with precision medicine. But what do they mean? A question making the rounds as pre-cision medicine becomes a more widely used term.

Think of migraines, why do some people respond well to paracetamol, while others respond better to ibuprofen or aspirin? Some might not respond to any of these and may require stronger doses of different drugs before finding a combination that works for them.

“Each one of us is unique in our biological makeup and precision medicine (PM) allows us to investigate this difference on a molecular level, rather than on the level of people ’s outward symptoms. The ability to see these differences so precisely means we can better under-stand what causes specific dis-eases and hence, how to treat them more effectively,” said Dr. Fakhro.

It’s almost like thinking of the difference between a ready-to-wear suit and a tailor-made suit. The former is stitched based on broad population averages, whereas the latter is made to measure

– it takes into account the buyer’s exact size and is tai-lored to perfectly fit their phy-sique. In this analogy, the ready-to-wear suit represents modern medicine, while the tailor-made suit represents the PM.

With the advent of PM, the conventional ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is beginning to crumble and will soon be replaced with more targeted discovery and treatment. Thanks to the PM, we now know two people with the same disease symptoms might react differently to the same drug, due to differences in their genetic makeup. Con-versely, two patients with seemingly different symptoms may have the same underlying genetic basis, providing a unified target for drug intervention.

With this knowledge, there is a shift from prescribing treatments based on what

works for the majority to a future where treatment is given in the right dose to the right person at the right time — and that is Personalised Medicine, Dr. Fakhro said.

However, it is important to note that PM may not arrive for all diseases at the same time.

“Some conditions, such as chronic illnesses (type 2 dia-betes, asthma, hypertension or high cholesterol levels) have many moving parts. Genetic predisposition may play an important role as evi-dence by family history, for example, but the environment also plays a significant role. While it is easy to measure the genetic component using genome technologies, it is almost impossible to capture an individual’s entire environ-mental exposure history,” Dr. Fakhro said.

In such cases, conven-tional medical treatment has largely been based on ‘trial and error’. Once a person is diagnosed with an illness, they are prescribed a drug, if it doesn’t work, another one may be prescribed, or a com-bination of medications, and so on, until something works. This may be a viable solution for chronic diseases because they progress slowly, but con-ditions such as autism, meta-bolic disorders and cancer are an entirely different story. With such conditions, timing is everything and every day counts for the patient. In many cases, it has been shown that early intervention increases the chances of survival and improves the quality of life significantly.

According to Dr. Fakhro, it is disorders like cancer where PM has demonstrated a lot of promise so far.

“Knowledge of the gene responsible for the tumour can help doctors determine which drugs a patient is most likely to respond to, sparing the patient from receiving treat-ments that are not likely to help, or chemotherapy as a blanket treatment that affects many parts of the body including those not affected by the tumour.”

For Qatar, the implemen-tation of PM means moving towards more precise and pow erful health care, which will eventually translate to better public health for everyone.

“At Sidra Medicine, we have developed core competencies in genome sequencing and com-putational analysis, and we are beginning to investigate the role genetics plays in disease predis-position and progression.

“This is also what makes our hospital unique — in its approach to health care as it will help doctors make more accurate diagnoses and pre-scribe more effective treatments for patients.

“It will also help us predict disease outcomes in patients with chronic disorders, for example, why do some diabetics develop retinopathy (vision impairment) while others have end-stage kidney failure?”

Dr. Fakhro said that Qatar, due to its size, has tremendous potential to build an exciting economy around the PM which will make us one of a kind in the region, and amongst the top pro-ducers of biomedical discoveries around the world.”

Dr. Khalid Fakhro, Acting Chief Research Officer, Sidra Medicine

Auto Class Cars continues its summer offer on MG vehicles’ maintenance servicesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Auto Class Cars, the authorised distributor of MG in Qatar, continues its amazing offer on maintenance services of all MG cars in Qatar, giving clients a great opportunity to have a free checkup of their vehicles, espe-cially during hot summer times.

Running until August 31, the offer is valid for all MG cars. Customers can visit the service centres to get free checkup of oil filter, AC filter, air filter and engine oil, by professional authorized technicians.

Hesham Al Sahn, General Manager of Auto Class Cars said: “Taking into consideration the hot summer times, we are thrilled to support our valued clients and offer them free checkups of main parts to enjoy cool and comfortable drive. It is part of our social responsi-bility towards our community to help them maintain their cars

in the best way”.Since its acquisition of MG

Motor, SAIC Motor, as a Global Top 500 company, has opened a new chapter for this British-born brand.

MG has a rich portfolio of sedan, crossover and SUV vehicles that are distinguished with their stylish designs, modern technology and com-petitive prices.

Auto Class Cars continues its amazing offer on maintenance services of all MG cars in Qatar, giving clients a great opportunity to have a free checkup of their vehicles, especially during hot summer times.

HMC also reminded people that it is important to take care of mental health during the time of uncertainty.

MoPH: 315 recoveries; 284 new virus casesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday announced the registration of 284 new confirmed COVID-19 cases found from 7,001 tests conducted yesterday.

Another 315 people have recovered from the virus, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Qatar to 113,531. All new cases have been introduced to isolation and are receiving necessary healthcare according to their health status.

The Ministry further said that

measures to tackle COVID-19 in Qatar have succeeded in flat-tening the curve and limiting the spread of the virus.

The Ministry further said that Qatar has one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the world, as a result of the coun-try’s young population, proactive testing to identify cases early and expanding hos-pital capacity, especially intensive care to ensure all patients receive the medical care they need and protecting the elderly and those with chronic diseases.

ACTA holds meeting with six government bodiesQNA — DOHA

As part of the preparation of the State of Qatar’s report for the cycle of the Review Mech-anism of the United Nations C o n v e n t i o n A g a i n s t Corruption, the Adminis-trative Control and Trans-parency Authority (ACTA) held a meeting with officials and experts from six minis-tries and governmental bodies in the country, namely the Ministry of Interior, the Public Prosecution, the National Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Committee, the

Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance.

During the meeting, in which some experts of the ACTA participated, gov-ernment officials were briefed on the significant efforts made by the ACTA to prepare the report and the most important parts that were completed, in addition to the required role of government experts during the discussion of the report.

The meeting also discussed the results of the review lot, which resulted in the naming Palestine and Guinea as

reviewing countries for the State of Qatar’s report, the date set for submitting it to the secretariat of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the internal mechanism for

reviewing the report.The meeting also agreed

on the conditions for visual communication that will take place between government experts in the State of Qatar,

governmental experts in the reviewing countries, and spe-cialists from the secretariat of the UNODC.

It is worth noting that the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Con-vention Against Corruption has established a dedicated mech-anism to review the implemen-tation of the Convention, stip-ulating that each State Party shall provide the UNODC Sec-retariat with the information requested by the Conference on its compliance with and imple-mentation of the Convention, using the comprehensive self-assessment checklist.

During the meeting, in which some experts of the ACTA participated, government officials were briefed on the significant efforts made by the ACTA to prepare the report and the most important parts that were completed, in addition to the required role of government experts during the discussion of the report.

QRCS supports 22 nations in COVID-19 fight

FROM PAGE 1

This init iative, he explained, was a cardinal form of support for the health systems in the target countries, where the consequences of the pandemic weighed heavily on the health facilities.

“QRCS will provide medi-cines, medical equipment, and consumables for the treatment of patients. We will enhance protection of the medical pro-fessionals who deal with quar-antined patients, by securing masks, gloves, sanitisers, and other medical protective sup-plies. Also, food baskets will be distributed to the families most affected by the lockdown,” said Eng. Al Maliki.

For the purpose of imple-mentation, cooperation agree-ments were signed with the partner National Societies. Preliminary coordination has already commenced, and the execution process will last until the end of 2020.

This is part of QRCS’s efforts to combat COVID-19 in Qatar and beyond. Under the supervision of Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), QRCS has undertaken significant

roles in operating quarantine facilities, taking swabs at its Workers’ Health Centers, and deploying its ambulance vehicles and first responders.

At the same time, QRCS’s volunteers made remarkable achievements in raising awareness at shopping centers an d public places, disinfecting streets and districts, inspecting hygiene compliance, just to name a few.

Internationally, QRCS has conducted many coronavirus control and relief operations, through its missions in Lebanon, Bangladesh, Turkey, Iraq, Yemen, and Gaza. This portfolio involved establishing isolation centers and field hos-pitals, supporting health care facilities, providing medical protective materials, and donating in-kind medical sup-plies for health authorities.

QRCS pays great attention to economic and food aid for the communities, refugees, and displaced persons affected by the pandemic, believing that concerted efforts are necessary to fight such a threat to millions of lives around the world.

Lulu Intersection to be partially closed for six monthsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Lulu Intersection on D-Ring Road will be closed partially for 6 months as part of the upgrading works of the D-Ring road.

“Please pay attention to the

six-month partial closure of the junction known as Lulu Inter-section on D-Ring Road starting from today. Follow the traffic signboards and guidelines to turn to different directions,” Ministry of Interior tweeted

yesterday. The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has started implementing the upgrading works of the D-Ring Road.

The project aims to improve traffic on the three main inter-sections of the D-Ring Road to

provide free flow of traffic by increasing the number of lanes on Fereej Al Ali intersection (Al Tadamon Intersection), Nuaija Intersection and providing free flow traffic on Lulu intersection.

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

In line with its mission to frame debates on Islam in a global context, the College of Islamic Studies (CIS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) has recently collaborated with Belgium’s Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven).

This collaboration was reflected in joint academic activ-ities between the Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE) and KU Leuven’s Leuven Centre for the Study of Islam, Culture and Society (LCSICS) to deliver a virtual summer school and an international conference. It was cemented with a memo-randum of understanding between the institutions.

The Islamic Ethics and the COVID-19 Pandemic summer school provided participants interested in Islamic ethics with the skills and knowledge to

critically engage with the global ethical discourse surrounding COVID-19. Over the course of four days, participants became familiar with case studies of pan-demic diseases and their effects on Muslim societies in medieval, colonial and contemporary times, such as congregational rituals, medical rationing and triage. This was accompanied by an analysis of the ethical approaches and discourses relating to COVID-19, including secular bioethics and varying Islamic approaches to scriptural, theological and juristic aspects.

The summer school initiative highlights CILE’s distinctiveness in leading the interdisciplinary field of Islamic Ethics. Some of the school’s key speakers included CIS faculty Dr. Mohammed Ghaly, Dr. Mutaz Al Khatib and Dr. Rajai Ray Jureidini, along with professors from Leuven and Germany

including Dr. Umar Ryad, Dr. Arjan Post and Dr Samer Rashwani.

Speaking after the conclusion of the summer school, Dr. Mohammed Ghaly, professor of Islamic bioethics at CIS, said, “During times of uncertainty, individuals and communities tend to consult their moral systems and examine how con-troversial ethical dilemmas can be addressed. The COVID-19 pandemic is by no means an exception to the rule and has trig-gered global discourse on related moral issues.

“It was therefore an honour to work with KU Leuven to develop a summer school initi-ative addressing these issues. The affinities between CILE and LCSICS are clear, and most notably include our shared com-mitment to the development of scholarship concerning Islam and Muslim societies. ”

03SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020 HOME

COVID-19 care: Perspective of a frontline physicianFAZEENA SALEEM

THE PENINSULA

At a time when COVID-19 brought the world to its knees and the virus tested the resil-ience of health care system, Qatar under the strategic and phenomenal leadership thrived all through, said a frontline physician.

The efficiency of the healthcare system has been proved by the smooth transition from the peak to the flattening of the curve, said Dr. Haajra Fatima , Medical Resident, at Hamad Medical Corporation, in a message circulated on social media.

Sharing her experience as a frontline physician during COVID-19, Dr. Fatima, said, “I was privileged to be a part of the task force fighting COVID- 19 in the state of Qatar. Working on the frontline at the Communi-cable Disease Centre (CDC), was a remarkable experience. The CDC, situated in the heart of Doha, has been devoted in the country’s efforts to tackle the crisis. CDC as a COVID-19 facility has been unique in many ways.”

She highlighted that the CDC had adapted to the delivery of an entirely new and challenging task.

“Every patient was triaged and assessed the severity of symptoms around the clock and accordingly provided appro-priate level of care,” said Dr. Fatima.

“Outdoor makeshift well-equipped tents set up to

routinely screen high risk staff working in common occurrence. This is not to forget the constant monitoring of the clinical con-dition of patients admitted as well as timely escalation of care as the need to,” she added.

According to Dr. Fatima, a rapidly evolving protocol was in place in order to deliver the best care possible and to ensure the safety of healthcare workers.

“As more was being dis-covered about COVID-19 worldwide, we witnessed the smooth transition from the peak to the flattening of the curve,” she said.

In the battle against COVID-19, there is an urgent

need to provide health care pro-viders with personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks, gloves and gowns, to keep them safe as they treat patients. Fatima says that the Ministry of Health is providing all needed medical supplies, including ade-quate PPE.

“I would like to highlight as health care workers there was never a moment when they were anxious about insufficient PPE. We had enough of it at any given point in time. I take this opportunity to thank all our patients for their cooperation and concordance with the measures taken to tackle the pandemic,” she added.

Dr. Haajra Fatima

CILE virtual summer school organised in partnership with leading Belgian university

HEC Paris in Qatar to run online sessionTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

HEC Paris in Qatar will be conducting an online infor-mation session about its degree programmes on August 26, from 4pm to 5pm.

The session will provide prospective participants an opportunity to interact remotely with the admissions team of HEC Paris in Qatar to learn more about how to accelerate their career path by studying in one of the world’s most pres-tigious business schools.

Apart from providing useful career tips, the interactive session is also intended to give professionals and entrepre-neurs from the private and public sector in-depth insights into how they can enhance their leadership skills through the institution’s International Exec-utive MBA (EMBA) and Spe-cialised Master’s Degree in Stra-tegic Business Unit Man-a g e m e n t ( S B U M ) programmes.

The International Executive MBA is a practical and intense 16-month programme developed to provide partici-pants with an understanding of the social, economic and envi-ronmental aspects of interna-tional business, as well as the skills to implement their vision. The curriculum is built around three components: 11 core courses covering key business areas, a specialization (major), and a final strategic business project (capstone project).

The comprehensive core courses include modules on strategy, analysis and imple-mentation, as well as leadership and human resources man-agement. Participants will choose one of the eight special-izations, delivered in different locations. These specialisations are Energy; Innovation & Social Business; Entrepreneurship and Innovation; Differentiation and Innovation through Services; Leading Digital Transformation; Luxury; Finance; among others.

Majoor emerges as major online platform for pharmaceutical services and products delivery in QatarTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Majoor has emerged as a major Qatar’s government-approved medicine delivery platform in the digital space. It aims to simplify the medicine procurement and delivery process, thus making visits to the pharmacy less stressful for patients and their loved ones.

Majoor platform for phar-maceutical delivery was granted the licence number 13 from the Ministry of Public Health for providing medicine delivery on February 4, 2020, said Dr Khalid K Al Hajri, Chairman of Majoor Markting and Delivery in a communication.

Majoor Marketing and Delivery is 100 percent Qatari company and all medicine deliveries are being provided on specially-equipped vehicles.

Majoor Marketing and Delivery application platform’s core business is delivering pharmaceutical services and products. It also helps doctors and clinics offer additional services over and above their current offerings thus ensuring greater patient satisfaction. Majoor is currently available as a mobile app in the Apple

AppStore and Google PlayStore.

With zero setup costs, Majoor is a cost-free marketing initiative that doctors and clinics can use to build up their practice and offer bundled medication delivery services to patients. Majoor takes a fee only when a patient requires medi-cation to be delivered to a spec-ified location.

Recognising the need to ensure online availability of a wider variety of healthcare-related products in addition to medicines, Majoor also offers delivery of medical cosmetics, hygiene products, as well as

baby care products. As a delivery platform

approved by Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health, Majoor allows doctors and clinics to offer an additional service to patients that would otherwise not be possible. With a network all across Qatar, Majoor ensures delivery of normal as well as urgent medication within pre-viously agreed-upon time frames.

Majoor’s simplified order-placing platforms allow doctors to ensure that all MoPH requirements are met while enabling speedy placement of delivery orders.

The efficiency of the healthcare system has been proved by the smooth transition from the peak to the flattening of the curve, said Dr. Haajra Fatima , Medical Resident, at Hamad Medical Corporation, in a message circulated on social media.

QNL joins Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science ServicesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar National Library (QNL) has joined the Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS), thus furthering its commitment to helping researchers in Qatar and beyond publish their findings on inter-national publishing platforms.

The Library was named as a representative of the Middle East on the board of SCOSS as part of its continuing commitment to sharing knowledge and infor-mation across the world through open access. The Library will join a network of influential organi-zations committed to helping secure open access and open science infrastructures worldwide. These infrastructures include scholarly communication resources, services and software that help researchers collect, store, organize, access, share and assess their research.

SCOSS identifies and analyses

non-commercial services that are essential to open science and open access and provides recom-mendations for funding to entities interested in supporting these services. Since 2017, SCOSS has encouraged the community to invest in nearly US$3 million in open infrastructure projects. Dr. Alwaleed Alkhaja, Senior Intellectual Property Librarian, will sit on the board as the Library’s representative.

H E Dr. Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, Minister of State, Qatar, and President of Qatar National Library said: “Qatar National Library has the capa-bility to achieve the principle of leadership that is confirmed in our country every day. By serving the community, as well as scien-tific institutions, researchers and scholars around the world, the Library is taking firm steps toward fulfilling its mission and achieving its vision with confi-dence at the national, regional

and international levels. We have a role to play at the global level toward achieving sustainable development goals in the Gulf, the Arab region and the Middle East.

“The Library pursues these roles through its international conferences, whether in the tra-ditional or virtual format. COVID-19 pandemic impeded

our traditional work, yet we expanded our demographic and geographical circle by holding virtual conferences and forums with international participation, and we continue to provide support to researchers, scientists and creative thinkers. Our com-mitment to open access reflects our ongoing efforts to remove barriers to information for all.

“Joining the Global Sustain-ability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) and having a representative of the Middle East on the board of the SCOSS reflect the position the Library has reached. This will represent a new incentive for our endeavours to enhance the Library’s position globally and expand its services for knowledge, science and development.

“The treasures contained in our Library, its content, its modernity, its advanced digiti-sation technology and its human potential will allow us to fulfil our mission to the fullest. We promise our patrons that we will hold virtual discussion groups cov-ering all topics related to national libraries and their cooperation to serve sustainable development and knowledge.

“We congratulate our wise leadership and our dear country on the position our national library has reached. We promise

to make every effort to be worthy of their esteemed trust.”

Dr. Alwaleed Alkhaja said: “Open access is all about making research publications freely available so anyone can benefit from access to research. We are committed to doing everything we can to support the researchers of Qatar, the Middle East and worldwide to disseminate their findings as far and wide as possible.

“Open access is one of our core values, which can also be seen in our commitment to offering free, unrestricted access to our collections and services such as the Qatar Digital Library. Open access is vital for improving the reach of research and helping to provide evidence for its impact. It also results in an improved rep-utation for researchers and their institutions, and in the long term, higher-quality research through open, transparent and repro-ducible research practices.

H E Dr. Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, Minister of State, and President of Qatar National Library said: “Qatar National Library has the capability to achieve the principle of leadership that is confirmed in our country every day. By serving the community, as well as scientific institutions, researchers and scholars around the world, the Library is taking firm steps toward fulfilling its mission and achieving its vision with confidence at the national, regional and international levels.”

Majoor Marketing and Delivery is 100 percent Qatari company and all medicine deliveries are being provided on specially-equipped vehicles. Majoor Marketing and Delivery application platform’s core business is delivering pharmaceutical services and products.

Qatar-Germany tradeties strong, up by 10% last year

FROM PAGE 1Sheikh Khalifa assured that

the Chamber highly welcomes German companies willing to invest in Qatar and benefit from the investment incentives and available opportunities, pointing out that there is a sig-nificant room for German com-panies to participate in the projects pertaining to the host of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

He also invited the Qatari companies to identify the opportunities available in German and establish active partnerships and economic alli-ances with the German side in various sectors.

On his part, President of the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry Peter Ramsauer said that Qatar and Germany are linked with close relations at all fields, affirming that Qatar has mamaged to accomplish great development and is moving rapidly toward achieving the economic development.

He also noted that there is a large business delegation will be visiting Qatar after the end of this pandemic to meet their Qatari counterparts and explore the Qatari market.

“Qatar has defeated the siege imposed on it since 2017. It has benefited much from that siege through reordering its economic priorities and achieving the self-sufficiency,” he added. Ramsauer paid tribute to the Qatari stimuli package and measures taken by the government during the current crisis to support the private sector.

On his part, Ambassador of of Qatar to Germany H E Mohammed bin Jaham al Kuwari said that Germany and Qatar are bound by a close partnership that not only looks back on a long tradition but also covers a wide range of political, social and particularly

economic areas, emphasizing that Qatar is interested to further intensify the excellent relations with Germany.

He also said that the forum would contribute to further strengthening the outstanding cooperation and networks as well as attracting new entre-preneurial opportunities allowing us to face these global challenges ahead with strong economic, political and sus-tainable commitment.

He referred to the meeting between Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the German Chancellor H E Angela Merkel on the occasion of the Qatar-Germany Business and Investment Forum 2018, noting that the meeting wit-nessed Qatar’s announcement to invest massively and long-term-focused in the German economy and to further expand its already extensive economic relations.

“Qatar offers great possibil-ities and opportunities for German companies. Partly due to its geographical location, it has developed into a global trading center that offers excellent conditions for pro-duction facilities with secure energy supplies. Qatar benefits from an outstanding logistical, financial, and digital infra-structure combined with an open welcome culture. Within this framework, the underlying state strategy “Vision 2030” offers the opportunity of shaping tomorrow’s future together with a key economy in the gulf region,” he added.

In his statement during the froum, QC board member Dr Khalid bin Klefeekh Al Hajri said that Qatar and Germany enjoyed strong relations, and they are keen on developing such relations to higher levels and establishing more alliances and partnerships that are of advantage for their economy.

04 SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

West African leaders push for return to civilian rule in Mali

AFP — BAMAKO

West African leaders arrived in Mali yesterday to try to push for a speedy return to civilian rule after a military coup in the troubled nation.

The delegation, headed by former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, planning to meet members of the new junta as well as ousted pres-ident Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Rebel soldiers seized Keita and other leaders after a mutiny on Tuesday, dealing another deep blow to a country already struggling with a brutal insurgency and widespread public discontent over its government.

Mali’s neighbours have called for Keita to be rein-stated, saying the purpose of the delegation’s visit was to help “ensure the immediate return of constitutional order”.

A delegation official said they would meet members of the junta and later Keita, who is being held with prime min-ister Boubou Cisse in Kati, a

military base northwest of Bamako where the coup was unleashed.

Adding to the interna-tional pressure, the United States on Friday suspended military aid to Mali, with no further training or support of the Mali armed forces.

But thousands of jubilant Malians took to the streets of Bamako on Friday to cele-brate the toppling of Keita, who was reelected in 2018 but became the focus of wide-spread discontent.

The crowds gathered in Bamako’s central square draped in the national flag and blasting on vuvuzela horns.

The rally, originally organised as an anti-Keita protest by a loose coalition that has led months of mass rallies against him, was recast to “celebrate the victory of the Malian people”.

“I am overjoyed! We won,” said Mariam Cisse, 38.

Speaking at the rally Ismael Wague, spokesman for the junta which calls itself the

National Committee for the Salvation of the People, paid tribute to the public.

“We merely completed the work that you began and we recognise ourselves in your fight,” he said.

The junta has said it weclomes the ECOWAS visit but has not talked of restoring Keita to power.

“A transitional council, with a transitional president who is going to be either mil-itary or civilian” would be appointed, Wague told France 24 television on Thursday.

Keita won election in a landslide in 2013, presenting himself as a unifying figure in a fractured country, and was re-elected in 2018 for another

five-year term.But he failed to make

headway against the militant revolt that has left swathes of the country in the hands of armed Islamists and ignited ethnic violence in the coun-try’s volatile centre.

Thousands of UN and French troops, along with sol-diers from five Sahel

countries, have been deployed to try to stem the bloodshed.

In a sign of the continuing challenge facing the country, four soldiers were killed by an explosive device in the country.

The ECOWAS visit to Mali comes after the UN’s peace-keeping mission in the country said a human rights team had gained access to the ousted president and other detainees on Thursday.

A junta member said the coup leaders had released former economy minister Abdoulaye Daffe and Sabane Mahalmoudou, Keita’s private secretary, calling the move “proof that we respect human rights”.

While Keita and Cisse have no television, radio or phone, other detainees are in a training centre, where they are sleeping on mattresses and have a TV, according to witnesses to the visit.

The 75-year-old ousted president “looked tired but relaxed,” they said, describing his conditions as “acceptable”.

Tuesday’s coup was the second in eight years, and has heightened concern over regional stability as its mil-itant insurgency that now threatens neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

A delegation of West African leaders headed by Nigeria’s former president Goodluck Jonathan (centre) arrive in Mali capital Bamako yesterday on a mission to restore order after a military coup.

IAEA chief to visit Irantomorrow amid standoffANATOLIA — TEHRAN

The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, will visit Tehran tomorrow, his first visit to the country since taking office in December.

Grossi will hold talks with high-level government officials in Tehran on coop-eration between the two sides and granting IAEA inspectors access to nuclear sites, according to a statement issued by the nuclear watchdog yesterday.

“I have decided to come personally to Tehran so that I can reinforce the importance of cooperation and the full implementation of all safeguards com-mitments and obligations with the IAEA,” Grossi said.

The objective of the visit, he under-lined, was to make “progress” in addressing the “outstanding questions” that the IAEA has with Iran, particularly the issue of “access” to nuclear sites.

The IAEA chief has in recent months issued strong statements, calling on Tehran to allow IAEA inspectors access to two nuclear sites in Iran. The state-ments have not gone down well with Tehran.

In his first address to the IAEA’s board of governors in March, Grossi had called on Iran to “cooperate immediately and fully” with the nuclear agency and provide access to inspectors.

In June, he told reporters in Vienna that Iran has “not engaged in substantive discussions to clarify our questions related to possible undeclared nuclear

material and nuclear-related activities”.

Last month, Grossi warned that “things will be bad” for Iran if the IAEA inspectors were denied access to the nuclear sites, and said it was “absolute necessity for us to resolve the issue very soon”.

Iran has so far refused access to the two nuclear sites, maintaining that the IAEA had no legal basis to inspect them since the activities at the sites are from early 2000s. Earlier, Iran’s Foreign Min-ister Javad Zarif had criticized the European countries for adopting a draft resolution to push for inspection of the two nuclear sites in question.

Iran’s envoy to the IAEA Kazzem Gharibabadi said “no country will open its territory to the inspections” based on allegations of its “enemies”.

Gharibabadi on Saturday confirmed the upcoming visit of the IAEA chief, saying it comes upon an invitation from the Iranian government.

The visit coincides with the looming uncertainty over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA), following the US push to reinstate all international sanctions on Tehran by triggering the snapback mechanism under the agreement.

There is a speculation that Iran will exit the deal and end cooperation with the IAEA, including leaving the Non Pro-liferation Treaty (NPT), if the pre-2015 sanctions are reinstated.

According to officials in Tehran, the issue is likely to figure prominently in the discussions between the IAEA chief and Iranian government officials.

Virus casesin Iraq top200,000AFP — BAGHDAD

Iraq yesterday registered nearly 4,000 cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases recorded by the country to over 200,000.

According to the Iraqi health ministry, 201,050 Iraqis have contracted the virus, including 6,353 who have died, while 143,393 are declared to have recovered since the pandemic began.

The daily increases have hovered around 4,000 for more than a week, but author-ities have declined to reimpose a strict lockdown that was lifted earlier this summer.

An overnight curfew remains in place, most restau-rants are closed for dine-in customers and land crossings are officially shut.

But airports, supermarkets and take-out cafes are open, with varying degrees of social distancing or mask-wearing.

Many fear yet another spike in cases is imminent, as Shia Muslims converge on the holy city of Karbala to com-memorate the beginning of the mourning month of Muharram.

Israel shells Hamas posts in GazaAFP — JERUSALEM

Israeli tanks shelled military positions of Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement early yesterday, the army and Pales-tinian security sources said, hours after a rocket was launched at southern Israel.

A statement from the military said the Israeli “tanks targeted Hamas mil-itary posts in the southern Gaza Strip” in response to the Friday fire.

The rocket, which set off sirens in southern Israel, was intercepted by air defences without causing any casu-alties or damage.

Gaza security sources said yes-terday tank fire targeted Hamas obser-vation posts east of Rafah and east of Khan Yunis, causing no casualties.

Israel has bombed Gaza almost daily since August 6 in retaliation for the launch of balloons fitted with fire bombs, or, less frequently, rockets.

Lebanon, Tunisia, Jordan report new COVID-19 casesANATOLIA — ISTANBUL

Health authorities in two Arab nations confirmed more fatalities from the coro-navirus as the region continues to battle the pandemic.

Three fatalities and 628 new cases were reported.

The death toll hit 116 and the number of cases stand at 11,580, including 3,204 recoveries.

One new death and 64 cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, according to health officials.

The death toll stands at 64 and the number of cases reached 2,607 while 1,420 patients have recovered.

Tunisia also imposed curfews in two southern towns Friday from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. for one week to stem the spread of COVID-19 - Jordan No new deaths were reported, but there are 34 new infections, health officials said.

To date, 11 people have died from COVID-19, with 1,532 infected with 1,262 recoveries.

Since originating in Wuhan, China last December, COVID-19 has claimed more than 797,900 lives in 188 countries and regions. More than 22.8 million cases have been reported worldwide, while an excess of 14.6 million patients have recovered, according to figures compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University.

A delegation, headed by Nigeria’s former president Goodluck Jonathan, planned to meet members of the new junta as well as ousted president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Iraq, US discuss capabilities of security forcesANATOLIA — BAGHDAD

Iraq and the US discussed bilateral rela-tions, including boosting the capabilities of the Iraqi forces, the Iraqi government said yesterday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi held talks in Washington with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The talks tackled “enhancing the combat capabilities of the Iraqi security forces in a way that takes the relations between the two countries to a new phase,” the government said in a statement.

The discussions also dwelt on the issues of the displaced and minorities as well as bilateral cooperation in the security, economic, educational and other fields.

“Iraq is a sovereign state, and any relationship should be based on this

principle,” the statement quoted Al Kadhimi as saying. He underlined the need to strengthen cooperation with Washington, especially in the economic field. The Iraqi premier said the issue of the displaced was a major priority for his government. “We are resolved to return the displaced to their areas and solve the problems facing minorities in Iraq,” he said. Pelosi, for her part, hailed steps taken by the Iraqi government since it came to power.

“Iraq is an independent and important country in a difficult region, and there is a consensus to support the independence of the [al-Kadhimi] government and…support government efforts in the war against Daesh/ISIS.”

Al Kadhimi was set to conclude his four-day visit to the US lateryesterday, his first trip to Washington since he took office in May.

05SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

‘Unofficial’ world’s oldest man dies in South AfricaAFP — JOHANNESBURG

A 116-year-old survivor of the 1918 Spanish Flu believed to be among the world’s oldest people died yesterday in South Africa, his family said.

Born on May 8, 1904, Fredie Blom (pictured) had “lived this long because of God’s grace,” he told AFP this year.

Guinness World Records lists the oldest currently living man as Briton Bob Weighton, aged 112, but South African media have described Blom as “unofficially” the world’s oldest.

Blom’s entire family was wiped out by the Spanish Flu pandemic when he was just a

teenager. But he himself sur-vived and went on to raise the three children of his wife of 46 years, Jeanette, as his own, becoming grandfather to five over the years.

“Two weeks ago oupa

(grandfather) was still chopping wood,” family spokesman Andre Naidoo said fondly, recalling the old man using a 4 pound hammer. “He was a strong man, full of pride,” he added.

But within 3 days, his family saw him shrink “from a big man to a small person”.

Born in the rural town of Adelaide, tucked near the Great Winterberg mountain range of South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, Blom died at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town.

His death was “not a COVID death at all, it’s normal natural death,” Naidoo said in reference to the coronavirus pandemic.

Violence as Ouattara chosenby party to run for third termAFP — ABIDJAN

Sporadic violence flared in Ivory Coast yesterday after President Alassane Ouattara was chosen by his ruling party to run for a third term in an October election, despite furious opposition charges the move is unconstitutional.

Ouattara, in power since 2010, said in March he would not stand again but changed his mind after the death of prime minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly — seen as his anointed suc-cessor — of a heart attack in July.

After his nomination, Ouattara vowed to score a first-round knockout victory before tens of thousands of supporters at an Abidjan rally held after the nomination.

“Going back on my decision was not easy,” said Ouattara, who insisted: “There is nothing preventing me from standing.”

“I did not have the right to place my personal project above the urgent situation in which the country finds itself,” he said.

But his party’s decision pro-voked outrage among young opposition supporters who took to the streets to voice loud and violent protest in several major

cities. The constitution limits pres-

idents to two terms, but 78-year-old Ouattara and his supporters argue that a 2016 constitutional tweak reset the clock, allowing him to seek a third.

Opposition and civil society groups say his standing again amounts to a “coup” that risks triggering chaos in the world’s biggest cocoa producer.

Violence erupted in several towns, notably Divo, a cocoa-growing centre 200km northwest of Abidjan where pro-opposition youths clashed with young supporters of the ruling party.

“The city is paralysed — the coach station, a modern school

and a bakery have been set alight,” resident Bernadette Kouassi said.

Gagnoa, the home town of former president Laurent Gbagbo further to the northwest, also saw unrest.

“Young people close to the opposition burned tyres and set up barricades in different parts of town,” one resident said, adding that protesters shouted “we don’t want a third mandate.”

There were further inci-dents at Bonoua in the south west, home town of former first lady Simone Gbagbo, which also saw unrest Friday.

After Ouattara’s re-election announcement earlier this month, mass protests descended into three days of violence in which six people died and a hundred were injured.

His ruling Houphouetist Rally for Democracy and Peace (RHDP) party said Ouattara was nominated as its candidate at an event attended by 100,000 people in an Abidjan stadium.

“We remain focused on the election, with a record to defend and a project to propose to Ivo-rians,” party spokesman Mamadou Toure said, branding the street demonstrations

against Ouattara’s candidacy a “dismal failure”.

The government on Thursday announced a ban on all outdoor protests until Sep-tember 13 in the wake of the deadly demonstrations this month.

Outtara’s change of heart has heightened tensions before the October 31 vote.

Ivory Coast, one of the world’s biggest producers of coffee and cocoa, is still trau-matised by a brief civil war that

erupted after the election, when then president Gbagbo refused to cede to the victor, Ouattara.

On Friday, election author-ities rejected appeals by Gbagbo and former rebel leader Guil-laume Soro to be allowed to run in October.

The two men had appealed to the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) against a decision to not include them in electoral lists for the ballot.

Gbagbo was freed condi-tionally by the International

Criminal Court in The Hague after he was cleared in 2019 of crimes against humanity over the 2010 election unrest.

His return to Ivory Coast would be sensitive before the presidential election. His Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party urged him to throw his hat in the electoral ring.

Soro, a former rebel leader, has been forced into self-imposed exile in France in the face of a long list of legal problems at home.

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara speaks at the meeting of the ruling coalition party RHDP organised to nominate him to stand for a third term in October’s election in Abidjan, yesterday.

Seven people dead in South Sudan cargo plane crashAFP — JUBA

Four passengers and three crew were killed yesterday when a cargo plane belonging to a local operator crashed near South Sudan’s capital Juba, the transport minister said.

The aircraft crashed shortly after its early morning takeoff in the Kameru neigh-bourhood around seven kilo-metres west of the city’s inter-national airport.

“There were eight people on board, three passengers and five crew. A single person from among the passengers survived and she is in good health,” Transport Minister Madut Biar Yol said. “The four other passengers and the three crew members are dead.”

According to the minister, the crew members were Russian while the passengers were all South Sudanese.

DR Congo vows to protect Nobel laureate Mukwege after death threatsAFP — KINSHASA

The government vowed yesterday to protect Nobel peace laureate Denis Mukwege and investigate death threats against him after he called for an international court to try crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

DR Congo’s president Felix Tshisekedi pledged that the interior, security and justice

ministers and others would “take all measures necessary to ensure Dr Mukwege’s security” and “open investigations”, the Cabinet said in a report, without giving detail.

Mukwege, a Congolese gynaecologist who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his work against sexual violence in war, and his relatives have been the target of “intimidation, hateful messages and death

threats,” it said.This has occurred while he

has “pleaded for peace in the country’s east, by proposing the establishment of an interna-tional criminal court for the DRC in order to try the serious crimes committed there against the civilian population,” it said.

On July 26, in a message on his Twitter account, Mukwege wrote “these are the same ones who are still killing in the DRC”,

referring to a massacre in the east.

Civilians in Kipupu, a village in South Kivu on the Fizi heights overlooking Lake Tanganyika, came under attack on July 16, with the death toll ranging widely between 18 and 220.

“The macabre stories from Kipupu are in a straight line from the massacres that have hit the DRC since 1996,” the peace prize winner said in a tweet.

The constitution limits presidents to two terms, but Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara and his supporters argue that a 2016 constitutional tweak reset the clock, allowing him to seek a third.

EU sees ‘new hope’ for Libya with ceasefireAFP — BRUSSELS

The European Union said yesterday it saw “new hope” for Libya after the country’s rival administrations declared a ceasefire and said they would hold nationwide elections.

The surprise development on Friday followed multiple visits by top foreign diplomats to Libya in recent weeks, and came after a series of agree-ments and pledges that, however, have failed to be implemented.

EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell described it as a “con-structive first step forward”.

The announcement “dem-onstrates the determination of the Libyan leaders to overcome the current stalemate and creates a new hope for a common ground towards a peaceful political solution to the longstanding Libyan crisis and the termination of all foreign interference throughout the country”, he said.

He urged “concrete actions” to enable a permanent ceasefire and a relaunch of the

political process, requiring “the departure of all foreign fighters and mercenaries present in Libya” as well as the resumption of peace negotia-tions “in the framework of the UN-led Berlin process.”

Borrell also called on all Libyan parties to implementat economic reform “with a view to agreeing on a fair and trans-parent distribution mechanism for oil revenues and to enhancing the governance of Libyan economic and financial institutions.”

Libya has been torn by civil war since the ouster of late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The government’s efforts for a long-term political set-tlement had since failed due to a military offensive by forces loyal to Haftar.

Since last September, several high-level meetings were held in the German capital to put an end to the Libyan conflict, with the par-ticipation of France, Italy, Germany and the UK. The negotiations are known as the Berlin peace process.

Turkey nabsalleged Palizzipainting smugglers

ANATOLIA — MUGLA

Turkish security forces caught alleged artwork traffickers yesterday suspected of attempting to smuggle a painting signed by world-famous Italian artist Filippo Palizzi.

Anti-smuggling teams in the southwestern Milas district of Mugla province had received intelligence that several historical objects were going to be brought from outside the city to be sold, according to a security source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

The teams raided a hotel room of three suspects and found the painting in their possession.

Sporting Palizzi’s name, the painting is thought to date back to the late 19th century and is worth millions of Turkish liras.

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COVID-19 recoveries in India exceed active cases by more than 1.5 millionIANS — NEW DELHI

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there is some reason to cheer. India has achieved a record high of 63,631 recoveries in a day, the Health Ministry said. The daily tests yesterday scaled a new high of more than one million, taking the cumulative tests to more than 34 million.

According to the ministry, the country has recorded 69,878 new coronavirus infection cases in a single day taking the total tally of cases to 29,75,701. In the last 24 hours, 945 people lost their lives due to COVID-19 infection taking the total death tally to 55,794 cases.

The silver lining, however, is that India’s total recoveries has exceeded the total active cases, which stand at 6,97,330, by more than 1.5 million. The record high recoveries have ensured that the actual caseload of the country viz the active cases, has reduced

and currently comprises only 23.43 per cent of the total pos-itive cases.

“With this high number of COVID-19 patients recovering and being discharged from the hospitals and home isolation, the Recovery Rate has reached 74.69 per cent. This has also led to declining Case Fatality Rate, which stands at a new low of

1.87 per cent today,” said the ministry officials.

They added: “Early identi-fication through aggressive testing, comprehensive surveil-lance and contact tracing along with focus on timely and effi-cient clinical treatment of patients have ensured speedy recovery. Higher number of recoveries and declining fatality have shown that India’s graded and pro-active strategy is deliv-ering results on the field,” said the health ministry.

Building on the continuum of care approach, the policy of testing aggressively, tracking comprehensively and treating efficiently, focussed attention on effective surveillance and house-to-house contact tracing has led to early detection and identifi-cation of COVID-19 cases.

Andhra Pradesh, one of the worst hit states, has recorded 87,803 active cases so far. A total 2,44,045 people have recovered from the deadly virus in the state

so far. In the last 24 hours, 8,827 people recovered from the infection of the virus. The state has recorded 3,092 deaths so far and in the last 24 hours 91 people succumbed to the infection In Karnataka, the total active cases are 83,082. So far 1,76,942 people have recovered from the infection, of whom 6,561 left

hospitals and quarantine centres in the last 24 hours, when 93 people succumbed to the disease taking the toll to 4,522 so far in the state.

The state of Maharashtra has 1,64,879 active cases. A total 4,70,873 people recovered from the virus infection and in the last 24 hours, as 11,749 people left

hospital after recovering. A total 21,698 people have lost their lives as 339 died in the last 24 hours.

The national capital has 11,426 active COVID-19 cases. So far, 1,42,908 people have recovered, of which 1,082 in the last 24 hours. The capital has reported 4,270 deaths so far as 13 died in past one day.

Police personnel check travel passes from commuters after strict lockdown norms for weekends and public holidays were imposed as a preventive measure against the coronavirus, in Amritsar, Punjab, India, yesterday.

South Korea expands social distancing rules as outbreak spreadsREUTERS — SEOUL

South Korea said yesterday it will roll out tougher social distancing guidelines to curb the spread of coronavirus nationwide as it battles a new outbreak of the disease spreading from, Seoul.

The Korea Centes for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 315 new domestic coronavirus infections as of midnight Friday, the latest in a string of triple digit increases in new local cases.

South Korea used advanced contact tracing and widespread

testing to contain its first out-break of the novel coronavirus, but Asia’s fourth-largest economy has experienced persistent out-breaks in recent weeks, mostly in and around densely populated Seoul and the surrounding areas.

The latest numbers take the country’s tally to 17,002 with 309 deaths.

In Seoul and some sur-rounding cities, the government has reimposed second-tier social distancing rules, including restricting large gatherings, banning in-person church meetings while closing nightclubs, karaokes, buffets and cyber cafes.

The same guidelines will be imposed on other areas across the country effective Sunday. However, in some areas with fewer infections, the guidelines would be recommended rather than obligatory.

“If we don’t curb the spread (of the virus) in early stages, this will grow as a large-scale wave. To us, there is nothing more important than focusing on responding to COVID-19,” Health Minister Park Neung-hoo told a briefing yesterday.

Health authorities have cat-egorized social distancing rules in three stages - stage 1 being

the least intense and stage 3 the toughest, where schools and businesses are urged to close.

“If we enhance the social distancing guidelines to the third stage, it is inevitable that they will take a toll on people’s daily lives and economy. We urge you to the situation seri-ously,” KCDC deputy director Kwon Jun-wook told a briefing.

Kwon said South Korea has provided anti-viral drug rem-desivir to treat 143 patients at 35 hospitals, but access to the drug has been irregular due to issues on the supplier side.

In June, South Korea asked

drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc to supply enough remdesivir to treat more than 5,000 COVID-19 patients in preparation for a pos-sible second wave of infections.

The Health Ministry also said it was postponing its decision to pursue policies boosting the number of medical students until the COVID-19 sit-uation stabilises.

Thousands of South Korean doctors have staged strikes and protests over government plans to train new doctors, saying there enough doctors but better con-ditions and systems are needed to properly allocate them.

Action against fishing illegallyThai officials check a detained Vietnamese fishermen at the Narthiwat fishing port in Thailand’s southern province of Narathiwat yesterday, after the boat was found to be illegally fishing in Thai waters.

Facebook in India transparent and non-partisan: OfficialANATOLIA — NEW DELHI

Facebook said on Friday it is “and always has been an open, transparent and non-partisan platform where people can express themselves freely,” as a political controversy erupts about the company’s reported tolerance of hate speech posts.

Last week, a news report, which triggered a political row in the country, said that a top executive of Facebook Ankhi Das opposed applying the hate speech rule against at least four individuals and groups linked with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Subsequently, the country’s main opposition party Indian National Congress wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuck-erberg, saying that Facebook “may be a willing participant in thwarting the right and values” that “leaders sacrificed their lives for.” The controversy has intensified into a war of words between the leaders from the BJP and Congress party.

“We have been accused of bias in the way we enforce our

policies. We take allegations of bias incredibly seriously, and want to make it clear that we denounce hate and bigotry in any form,” Vice-President and Managing Director of Facebook India Ajit Mohan said in a note published Friday. “We want to make it clear that we denounce hate in any form.” “Many ques-tions have been raised specif-ically about enforcement of our policies around hate speech,” Das said.

“We have removed and will continue to remove content posted by public figures in India when it violates our Com-munity Standards.” According to Das, as per latest enforcement numbers, Facebook has removed 22.5 million pieces of hate speech content in the second quarter of 2020.

“Facebook’s commitment to India and its people is unwa-vering. With some of our largest thriving communities in this country, we recognize our responsibility to keep our plat-forms to be places where people feel empowered to communicate safely," he said.

Fire engulfs A-G’s office in JakartaAFP — JAKARTA

A fire engulfed the office of Indonesia’s attorney general yesterday evening in downtown Jakarta. There were no immediate reports of casu-alties and officials did not say what might have caused the blaze, which spread quickly

through the six-storey building.Images showed firefighters

dumping water on the raging blaze, which appeared to consume most of the building, with more than 100 personnel taking part in the effort, according to local media. The fire broke out shortly after 7pm local time.

“It started on the sixth floor,” Hari Setiyono, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, told reporters.

“There are no casualties so far.” The office had been closed since public holidays started on Thursday, he added. “There was no activity at the building when the fire struck,” Setiyono said.

New solutions needed 3 years after Rohingya crisis: UNANATOLIA — GENEVA

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, called on Friday for renewed solutions for displaced and stateless Rohingya commu-nities inside and outside Myanmar.

The agency said nearly 900,000 are refugees in Bang-ladesh, three years after a crisis there peaked.

UNHCR spokesmsn Andrej Mahecic said at a Geneva news conference that the interna-tional community must maintain support for Rohingya refugees, host communities and expand the search for solutions.

“Three years on from the latest exodus of Rohingya ref-ugees who fled Myanmar and sought sanctuary in Bangladesh from August 2017 onwards, challenges persist and continue to evolve,” said Mahecic. “Rohingya communities estimate that up to three-quarters of the Rohingya people are today living outside of Myanmar.”

The agency said Bangladesh registered more than 860,000 Rohingya refugees in settle-ments in Cox’s Bazar.

“Ultimately, the solution to the plight of the Rohingya lies in Myanmar, and in compre-hensively implementing the

Advisory Commission’s recom-mendations on Rakhine State, to which the Government of Myanmar has committed,” said Mahecic.

He noted that Bangladesh had ensured protection and extended life-saving humani-tarian support by hosting nine out of 10 Rohingya refugees reg-istered in the Asia-Pacific region.

“This generosity must be acknowledged through con-tinued investment in both Rohingya refugees and Bang-ladeshi host communities,” he said.

Creating conditions con-ducive to the Rohingya people’s safe and sustainable return will

require a comprehensive society engagement, resuming and enhancing dialogue between Myanmar authorities and Rohingya refugees and other measures that help inspire trust, he said.

“These include lifting restric-tions on freedom of movement, reconfirming that internally dis-placed Rohingya can return to their villages and providing a clear pathway towards citi-zenship,” said Mahecic.

He said Rohingya people’s strength and resilience in exile in Bangladesh and elsewhere had formed the backbone of the humanitarian response during the past three years.

50kg ovarian tumour removed from woman in Delhi hospitalIANS — NEW DELHI

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors at a private hospital in Delhi successfully removed an ovarian tumour weighing 50kg from a 52-year-old woman.

The woman Lakshmi (name changed), who is a local resident, had recently started experiencing difficulty in breathing, acute pain in her lower abdomen and conse-quently difficulty in walking and sleeping, the Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals said.

Upon investigation, it was revealed that the woman had a giant, progressively expanding tumour in her ovary and this was putting pressure on her intestine (intestinal adhesions) causing acute stomach ache and ina-bility to digest food.

“In over 30 years of my experience as a surgeon, I have never come across a case where the tumour weighed almost half the person’s body weight,” said Dr Arun Prasad, Senior Consultant, Surgical Gastroenterology & Bariatric Surgery.

She had been gaining weight for the past few months and weighed a total of 106kg. Additionally, the haemoglobin of the patient had dropped to six, causing severe anaemia. A team of surgeons conducted a three-and-a-half-hour surgery for extraction of this 50kg tumour this week.

“Here, there was no space in the abdomen for insertion of equipment via laparoscopy or robot-assisted methods, hence we had to resort to tra-ditional methods of surgery,” Prasad said.

“With the combined effort of experts from the Gastroen-terology, Gyanecology and Anesthesiology teams, the extraction was done success-fully,” he added.

The country has recorded 69,878 new coronavirus infection cases in a single day taking the total tally of cases to 29,75,701. In the last 24 hours, 945 people lost their lives due to Covid-19 infection taking the total death tally to 55,794 cases.

07SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020 ASIA

Pakistan sanctions Taliban to avoid finance blacklistAP — ISLAMABAD

Pakistan issued sweeping financial sanctions against Afghanistan’s Taliban, just as the militant group is in the midst of US-led peace process in the neighbouring country.

The orders, which were made public late on Friday, identified dozens of individuals, including the Taliban’s chief peace negotiator Abdul Ghani Baradar and several members of the Haqqani family, including Sirajuddin, the current head of the Haqqani network and deputy head of the Taliban.

The list of sanctioned groups included others besides the Taliban and were in keeping with a five-year-old United Nations resolution sanctioning the Afghan group and freezing their assets.

The orders were issued as part of Pakistan’s efforts to avoid being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which monitors money laundering and tracks terrorist groups’ activities, according to security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Last year the Paris-based group put Islamabad on a grey list. Until now only Iran and North Korea are blacklisted,

which severely restricts a coun-try’s international borrowing capabilities. Pakistan is trying to get off the grey list, said the officials.

There was no immediate response from the Taliban, but many of the group’s leaders are known to own businesses and property in Pakistan.

Many of Taliban leaders, including those heading the much -feared Haqqani network, have lived in Pakistan since the 1980s, when they were part of

the Afghan mujahedeen and allies of the United States to end the 10-year invasion of Afghan-istan by the former Soviet Union. It ended in February, 1989.

Pakistan has denied giving sanctuary to the Taliban fol-lowing their ouster in 2001 by the US-led coalition but both Washington and Kabul rou-tinely accused Islamabad of giving them a safe haven.

Still it was Pakistan’s rela-tionship with the Taliban that Washington eventually sought to exploit to move its peace negotiations with the insurgent movement forward. America signed a peace deal with the Taliban on February 29. The deal is intended to end Wash-ington’s nearly 20 years of mil-itary engagement in Afghan-istan, and has been touted as

Afghanistan’s best hope for a peace after more than four decades of war.

But even as Washington has already begun withdrawing its soldiers, efforts to get talks started between Kabul’s political leadership and the Taliban have been stymied by delays in a prisoner release program.

The two sides are to release prisoners — 5,000 by the gov-ernment and 1,000 by the Taliban — as a good will gesture ahead of talks. Both sides blame the other for the delays.

The timing of Pakistan’s decision to issue the orders implementing the restrictive sanctions could also be seen as a move to pressure the Taliban into a quick start to the intra-Afghan negotiations.

Kabul has defied a

traditional jirga or council’s order to release the last Taliban it is holding, saying it wants 22 Afghan commandos being held by the Taliban freed first.

As well as the Taliban, the orders also target al-Qaida and the Islamic State affiliate which has carried out deadly attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

They also take aim at out-lawed Pakistani groups like Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), thousands of whom are believed by the UN to be hiding in remote regions of Afghan-istan. The TTP has declared war on Pakistan, carrying out one of the worst terrorist attacks in the country in 2014 killing 145 children and their teachers at an army public school in northwest Pakistan.

7 killed in rain-related incidents as monsoon wreaks havoc in KarachiINTERNEWS — KARACHI

Yet another monsoon spell brought more devastation to Karachi on Friday, claiming the lives of at least seven citizens and inundating roads in various parts of the city.

According to the Met department, the highest amount of rainfall, 185.7mm, was recorded in Surjani Town.

Meanwhile, 14.4mm was recorded at Karachi (MOS), 54mm at PAF Masroor Base, 22mm at PAF Faisal Base, 84mm at Gulshan-e-Hadeed, 106.4mm at North Karachi, 106mm at Nazimabad, 20mm at Saddar, 25mm at Landhi, 28.2mm at University Road, 20.8mm at Jinnah Terminal, 11.5mm at Kemari and 28.5mm at Saadi Town.

On Thursday, the Met office had predicted that the monsoon spell in Karachi and other parts of Sindh as well as Balochistan could last till Monday.

“Strong monsoon currents are expected to penetrate Sindh from Friday to Monday,” it said in a brief statement.

“Under the influence of this system rain, winds and thun-dershowers, with a few

moderate to isolated heavy falls, are expected in Karachi, Hyderabad, Thatta, Badin, Shaheed Benazirabad, Dadu, Tharparkar, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Sanghar, Sukkur, Larkana, Lasbela, Khuzdar, Barkhan, Zhob, Musa Khel, Loralai, Kohlu and Sibbi from Friday to Monday.” Amid the downpour recorded today, a young man died after being electrocuted in the city’s Docks area, according to police and rescue officials.

They stated that 20-year-old Saifullah died from electro-cution while turning on an elec-trical switch at his home in Machar Colony. The body was shifted to Civil Hospital to com-plete legal formalities.

SHO Azam Rajpur said that the deceased’s family didn’t want to pursue the case legally.

Separately, two men died after being struck by lightning on the outskirts of Malir. The deceased were identified as Shah Nawaz and Sultan Mallah.

Police and rescue workers said the two died after being struck by lightning at a farm house in Haji Mehar Goth.

In the New Karachi area, a man, his teenaged son and

brother drowned in a drain on Friday evening, according to police. Area SHO Tahir Khan said Bilal, 17, slipped and fell into a nullah near Bismillah Chowk. His father Nasir and Nasir’s brother Adnan jumped in order to save the teenager but they too drowned. The officer said the nullah was inundated after the heavy rain.

Rescue workers and area residents were trying to rescue the three family members but

there was no sign of them despite the passage of one hour, Khan said.

In a separate incident, a teenager drowned in Lyari River near Teen Hatti, according to rescue workers. They said that some boys were playing football when the ball fell into the river.

As Ali Raza tried to retrieve it, heavy flow of water swept him away. An Edhi Foundation spokesperson said they had to

stop the operation to rescue him due to darkness.

Earlier today, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah directed the departments con-cerned to remain alert and begin preparations for draining rainwater.

“As soon as the rain stops, water accumulated in low-lying areas should be drained using machines,” he directed. People’s homes should be protected, he said.

Pakistani army soldiers take part of rescue operation in a flooded area after heavy monsoon rains in the port city of Karachi, yesterday.

China, Pakistan praise Kabul, Taliban efforts for peace talks

ANATOLIA — ISLAMABAD

China and Pakistan on Friday praised efforts by the Afghan government and Taliban to initiate intra-Afghan negotia-tions and urged both sides to commence talks for durable peace and stability in the war-torn country as soon as possible.

In a joint statement fol-lowing the second round of the China-Pakistan Foreign Min-isters’ Strategic Dialogue in Hainan, China, both sides emphasized the importance of an inclusive, broad-based, and comprehensive negotiated agreement for a future political settlement in Afghanistan.

“While reaffirming their commitment to an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned Peace Process, both sides encouraged relevant parties in Afghanistan to seize this historic oppor-tunity and commence the Intra-Afghan Negotiations at the earliest leading to durable peace and stability in Afghan-istan. China appreciated Paki-stan’s positive contribution to the Afghan peace process and efforts for promoting peace and stability in region and beyond,” said the statement.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi arrived in Hainan along with a high-level delegation on Thursday, in his second visit to China after the coronavirus outbreak originating in Wuhan since last December.

In March, Qureshi visited along with President Arif Alvi in an apparent show of his country’s solidarity with China battling COVID-19.

A video released by Pakistan showed Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warmly welcomed his Paki-stani counterpart upon his arrival for the second round of the China-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue in Hainan.

Taiwan tells China not to underestimate its resolveREUTERS — TAIPEI

China should not underestimate Taiwan’s resolve to defend itself, and China’s military threats will only cause Taiwan’s people to be even more resolute, the island’s defence ministry said in a new video responding to repeated Chinese threats.

China has stepped up its military activity around the democratic island Beijing claims as sovereign Chinese territory, sending fighter jets and warships on exercises close to Taiwan, including last week when the US health sec-

retary was in Taipei.Taiwan’s defence ministry,

in a statement late on Thursday to accompany a video showing Taiwanese forces drilling, said it was “expressing its stern attitude about recent Chinese Communist People’s Liberation Army military pressure acts”.

Taiwan will not provoke, but it will also not show weakness, it added.

“Absolutely do not treat lightly our resolve to defend Taiwan,” the ministry said.

“The most arrogant country can easily provoke a war, and the most ignorant government can be caught in the flames of

war.” China’s provocations and threats will only further unite Taiwan’s people and “recognise the essence of the Chinese Communist’s militarism”, it said.

“In the end it will have the opposite effect, inciting the wrath and antipathy of Tai-wan’s people, seriously hurting peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.” The slickly pro-duced video, also released on the ministry’s Facebook page, shows Taiwan’s F-16s screaming into the air, missiles being fired from land and at sea, and soldiers on manoeuvres.

China has never renounced

the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan’s people have shown no interest in being run by autocratic Beijing.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen is overseeing a military modernisation programme, though Taiwan’s forces are dwarfed by China’s, which now have advanced equipment including stealth fighters and aircraft carriers.

The United States, Taiwan’s main arms supplier, has ramped up support for the island. Last year, the US State Department approved arms sales worth $10bn for Taiwan.

On-board safety measuresA Bangkok Airways stewardess wearing a face mask as a preventive measure against the coronavirus demonstrating safety measures before take-off from Koh Samui airport in Koh Samui, southern Thailand.

South Korea and China reaffirm plans for leaders’ summit

AP — SEOUL

Senior South Korean and Chinese officials yesterday reaffirmed plans to arrange a summit between their leaders “at an early date” once coro-navirus concerns subside, Seoul’s presidential office said.

At a meeting in the South Korean port city of Busan, top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi and South Korea’s national security adviser, Suh Hoon, also discussed the international standoff over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and rising tensions between Wash-ington and Beijing, the Blue House said in a statement.

The government of South Korean President Moon Jae-in has been eager to improve bilateral relations that have been strained since South Korea deployed a US anti-missile system on its soil in 2017 over Chinese objections. Moon had hoped to host Chinese President Xi Jinping in Seoul during the earlier half of the year, but the spread of COVID-19 prevented the visit.

Yang, a Politburo member of the Chinese Communist Party’s powerful Central Com-mittee, promised “constant communication and cooper-ation” with South Korea while supporting efforts to denu-clearise the Korean Peninsula and stabilise peace, according to the Blue House, which didn’t provide further details.

Moon’s government is eager to resume engagement with North Korea, which has virtually cut off all inter-Korean cooperation.

Indonesia books 50 millionvaccine doses from SinovacREUTERS — JAKARTA

China’s Sinovac Biotech has committed to provide 50 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine candidate to Indone-sia’s government from November to March, a minister and Indonesia’s state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma said.

The Southeast Asian nation is seeking to secure a supply as cases rise unabated.

During a visit to China, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said a prelim-inary agreement had been signed with Sinovac for bulk purchase and supply of the vaccine, CoronaVac, from November to March, after which Indonesia’s state-owned Bio Farma would get priority access unti l end-2021.

Indonesia has recorded 149,408 coronavirus infections

and 6,500 deaths and is keen to secure a vaccine for its 260 million people and develop its own, amid concern among some developing countries about competition for access.

“Indonesia sees a strong commitment from China’s industries to forge partner-ships and a strong com-mitment from its government to foster those partnerships,” she said late on Thursday via video.

Sinovac did not immedi-ately respond to a request for comment on Friday and Bio Farma said in a statement on Friday evening that the 50 million bulk would come in stages: 10 million for each month starting in November. Marsudi said on Thursday that the doses had been 40 million.

Phase III trials for Sino-vac’s CoronaVac began last week in Indonesia involving 1,620 volunteers.

The orders identified dozens of individuals, including the Taliban’s chief peace negotiator Abdul Ghani Baradar and several members of the Haqqani family, including Sirajuddin, the current head of the Haqqani network and deputy head of the Taliban.

08 SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMANDR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFIeditorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMEDm.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

EDITORIAL

THE collapse of military campaign launched by Haftar’s forces in April 2019 in an attempt to capture the capital Tripoli was a turning point in the Libyan conflict. The Government of National Accord (GNA) managed in last June to kick out Haftar’s forces from the outskirts of the capital and other towns.

The failure to achieve the designated goals through the military operation against the UN backed government of GNA along pressures from the international com-munity has forced those refusing peaceful solution and dialogue to respond to calls for excluding military solution.

The GNA led by Fayez Al Sarraj announced on Friday a ceasefire agreement in all Libyan territories, and called for the demilitarization of Sirte and Jurfa areas, and that police forces from the two sides agree on security arrangements there. A step widely wel-comed by the international community and major actors, including the European Union, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The State of Qatar was calling for political solutions and renewed its support of Skhirat agreement of December 2015, therefore it was among the first to welcome this agreement. Qatar expressed its hope that all Libyan parties respect the ceasefire agreement, expedite the completion of the political process, and lift the blockade on the oil fields to resume production and exports.

Qatar renewed it position and faith that there is no other option except a political solution for the Libyan crisis and supported the sincere intention of the GNA led by Fayez Al Sarraj to stop the bloodshed and sit down to find a political solution that serves Libya and its people and thus results from a civilian government.

This was also expressed by the Deputy Prime Min-ister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs, H E Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah, in an interview with Al Jazeera TV on Thursday.

“There is importance to reach a political solution to the Libyan crisis, and this political solution comes through the political agreement and the outputs of the Skhirat Agreement in accordance with relevant Security Council resolutions, Al Attiyah said.

Qatar called upon all Libyans to engage in con-structive and inclusive political process that uphold the national interest and adhere to dialogue without excluding any component of the Libyan society, leading to a comprehensive political settlement that preserves the country’s sovereignty and unity.

Qatar is hopeful to see the ceasefire announcement paves way for a lasting political solution in Libya and rebuilding the country in a way that preserves the rights of the Libyan people and the rule of law.

A welcome development

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Quote of the day

Going back on my decision was not easy. There is nothing preventing me from standing. I did not have the right to place my personal project above the urgent situation in which the country finds itself.

Alassane Ouattara, Ivory Coast President

People line in a sidewalk filled with tents set up by the homeless, amid an outbreak of the coronavirus in San Francisco, California.

When COVID-19 was understood as a global and deadly threat, there was a singular prescription promulgated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and governments around the world: stay home, wash your hands, and keep a physical distance from others. As former UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing and an advocate in the area of housing for decades, the implications of this guidance to me were clear - and almost hopeful.

If protecting against further spread required a home, a shelter to isolate in, access to sanitation, then, intentionally or not, the WHO was prescribing access to adequate housing. Housing was clearly a requirement for the world to stay safe and effectively address the pandemic. Access to adequate housing would reduce infection rates and ensure that healthcare systems would not be overwhelmed. In other words, home and hospitals have been put forward as equally necessary to preserving life.

With this unambiguous position adopted by governments, I was certain we would see the global housing crisis tackled with the urgency that is in fact warranted when a human right is violated en masse. This was not utopian opportunism, but rather a logical deduction based on the global “stay at home” prescription.

I anticipated that governments would move swiftly to eliminate homelessness, not because of a new regard for the dignity of people living in homelessness or recog-nition of their rights, but because in the face of a virus that spreads exponentially and that causes death, governments know that one person living in the street who is exposed to the virus could put an entire nation at risk.

I was sure that governments would impose adequate protections for those living in rental accommodation and expe-riencing economic hardship so that no matter their financial position they could remain in their own homes and out of harm’s way for the duration of the pandemic.

I was certain that governments would take the necessary steps to ensure that the ongoing legacy of the 2008 global financial crisis - the invasion of residential real estate by institutional investors and the unaffordability of rental housing - would not be exacerbated or repeat itself.

And I assumed that what would begin as emergency measures would translate into the drafting of longer-term housing strategies aimed at fixing the causes and effects of the housing crisis, again not as a matter of human rights obligations, but on the understanding that pandemics are no longer one-off events, so we must prepare for the future.

I thought a renewed sense of urgency around viral outbreaks and public health would ignite bold determination to end homelessness and forced evictions, upgrade informal settlements, increase tenant protections against unaffordability and eviction, and regulate global institu-tional financial actors that have wreaked havoc on the housing sector since the global financial crisis.

Six months into this nightmare, not only has the housing crisis and its effects not been effectively tackled, they may have become more pronounced, while revi-talised plans to address the housing crisis have been scant.

In Canada, still one of the wealthiest countries in the world, there has been a proliferation of homeless encampments - in part as a result of limitations on the numbers of spaces in shelters to ensure conformity with social distancing policies. People living in homelessness also fear COVID-19 outbreaks in shelters and other congregate settings they have been offered, preferring instead the space and safety of pitching a tent in the outdoors.

In India, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, forced evictions of Indig-enous communities, as well as thousands of people living in informal settlements without provision of alternative housing, have been reported in Gurugram, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, and Delhi, in July alone.

In the United States, estimates indicate that approximately 40 percent of renter households are at risk of experiencing rental shortfalls, with 12 million potentially facing eviction within the next four months, particularly once moratoriums on evictions are lifted.

Meanwhile, private equity firms and other institutional investors are salivating at the once in a generation opportunity to

do what they do best - make a profit - boasting access to trillions of “dry powder” for new acquisitions. Without any sign of government restraint, they are eyeing dis-tressed residential real estate assets, including multifamily rental apartments, which can perform well, even in economic hard times.

This is not to say that governments have not responded at all with measures to address homelessness and protect residents of informal settlements and tenants. At the onset of the pandemic, the UK government swiftly provided 5,400 street homeless with hotel rooms and other accommodation and have promised the provision of 3,300 long-term housing units with social supports within 12 months. In fact, the use of hotel rooms as emergency accommodation for homeless people was instituted in a number of places, including the US state of Cali-fornia, France, and parts of Canada.

Spain, like many other countries, implemented a moratorium on evictions during the pandemic and is also providing microloans to low-income tenants or those who have suffered job loss to assist them in making rental payments. The loans can be repaid over the course of six years.

While such measures are not insignif-icant, a global scan indicates they are far too few. While governments may not be quick to embrace housing as a human right or admit there is a housing crisis that requires a new approach, the devastation wreaked by this pandemic has surely strengthened their resolve to be better pro-tected against any future pandemic threats.

If that is the case, ensuring access to adequate, affordable and secure housing is both prevention and prescription. Maybe once governments commit to that, they will be bold enough to call those measures what they are: the implementation of the right to housing.

The author is the Global Director of The Shift and co-host of the podcast PUSHBACK Talks.

KATE KELLAND REUTERS

Russia's plan to roll-out its "Sputnik-V" COVID-19 vaccine even before full trials show how well it works is prompting concern among virus experts, who warn a partially effective shot may encourage the novel coronavirus to mutate.

Viruses, including the pan-demic SARS-CoV-2, are known for their ability to mutate all the time - and often this has little or no impact on the risk posed to people. But some scientists are worried that adding "evolu-tionary pressure" to the pathogen by deploying what might not be a fully protective vaccine could make things worse.

"Less than complete pro-tection could provide a selection pressure that drives the virus to evade what antibody there is, creating strains that then evade all vaccine responses," said Ian Jones, a virology professor at Britain's Reading University.

"In that sense, a poor vaccine is worse than no vaccine."

Sputnik-V's developers, as well as financial backers and Russian authorities, say the vaccine is safe and that two months of small-scale human trials have shown that it works.

But the results of those trials have not been made public, and many Western scientists are sceptical, warning against its use until all internationally approved testing and regulatory

hurdles have been passed.Russia said it plans to begin

a large-scale efficacy trial of the vaccine in a total of 40,000 people, but will also begin administering it to people in high-risk groups, such as healthcare workers, before the trial has produced any results.

"You want to make sure the vaccine is effective. We really don't know that (about the Sputnik vaccine)," said Kathryn Edwards, a professor of paedi-atrics and vaccine expert in the infectious diseases division at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in the United States.

She said that the risk of what a vaccine might do to a virus - in terms of fighting it, blocking it, or forcing it to adapt - is "always a concern".

Scientists say similar evolu-tionary pressure to mutate is seen with bacterial pathogens, which - when faced with antibi-otics designed to target them - can evolve and adapt to evade the drugs and develop resistance.

Antibiotic resistance and the rise of superbugs, is described by the World Health Organization as one of the biggest threats to global health, food security and development today.

Jones stressed that vaccine-induced viral mutations are "a rare outcome", and the greater the efficacy of the vaccine in blocking a virus' ability to enter cells and replicate there, the lower the risk of it having an opportunity to circulate and "learn" how to evade antibody defences.

States have to ensure adequate housing amid the pandemic

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Russia vaccine roll-out plan prompts virus mutation worries

Established in 1996

LEILANI FARHA AL JAZEERA

While governments may not be quick to embrace housing as a human right or admit there is a housing crisis that requires a new approach, the devastation wreaked by this pandemic has surely strengthened their resolve to be better protected against any future pandemic threats.

09SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020 EUROPE

Kremlin critic ‘stable’ after transfer to Berlin hospitalAFP — BERLIN

Leading Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who has suffered a suspected poisoning, was in a stable condition in hospital after being flown to Berlin following a standoff over his medical evacuation from Russia.

A convoy including two yellow ambulances brought Navalny from Berlin’s Tegel airport to the renowned Charite hospital just after 10:20 am local time (0820 GMT).

“Navalny’s condition is stable,” Jaka Bizilj, the head of the Cinema for Peace foun-dation that brought Navalny to Germany in a chartered medical plane, said.

Berlin’s Charite hospital confirmed in a statement that it had admitted Navalny and was carrying out an “extensive medical diagnosis”.

The 44-year-old lawyer and anti-corruption campaigner, one of President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, went into a coma after falling suddenly ill Thursday on a plane to Moscow that had to make an emergency landing in Omsk.

Aides said they believe Navalny was poisoned, appar-ently via a cup of tea at the airport, and blamed Putin,

though Russian doctors said tests showed no trace of any poison.

Doctors treating him in Omsk had refused to let Navalny leave but reversed course after his family and staff demanded he be allowed to travel to Germany.

As the plane left Omsk, Nav-alny’s wife Yulia thanked sup-porters via Instagram for their “persistence”.

“Without your support, we wouldn’t have been able to take him!” she wrote.

The air ambulance arrived in Omsk on Friday morning but Russian doctors initially said Navalny was too “unstable” to be moved, before relenting later that day.

Navalny’s wife had appealed directly to Putin to let him leave, while his aides asked the European Court of Human

Rights to intervene.Human rights group Cinema

for Peace said it had financed the medical transport with private money, although its chief Bizilj would not reveal the list of donors it cobbled together at the last minute.

Navalny is the latest in a long line of Kremlin critics who have fallen seriously ill or died in apparent poisonings.

His wife told journalists that she wanted Navalny to be “in an independent hospital, whose doctors we trust”.

Navalny’s spokesman Kira Yarmysh tweeted that “the battle for Alexei’s life and health is just beginning... but at least now we’ve taken the first step.”

The air ambulance was dis-patched to take Navalny to Berlin after Chancellor Angela Merkel extended an offer of treatment.

European Union leaders including Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have voiced concern for Navalny, who has faced repeated physical attacks and prosecutions in more than a decade of opposition to Russian authorities.

Navalny lost consciousness shortly after his plane took off on Thursday from Tomsk in

Siberia, where he was working to support opposition candi-dates ahead of regional elec-tions next month.

Yarmysh said he had seemed “absolutely fine” before boarding the flight and had only con-sumed a cup of tea at the airport.

She said she was sure he had suffered from an “inten-tional poisoning” and blamed Putin.

She also claimed Russia’s refusal to evacuate Navalny was

a ploy to “play for time” and make it impossible to trace poison, posing a “critical threat to his life”.

Navalny has made many enemies with his anti-cor-ruption investigations, which often reveal the lavish lifestyles of Russia’s elite and attract mil-lions of views online.

The director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation that Navalny founded, Ivan Zhdanov, confirmed on social

media that the organisation was “continuing its work”.

Many supporters expressed relief he was going for treatment outside Russia.

“I feel as relieved now as if terrorists had freed a hostage after long negotiations,” fellow opposition politician Ilya Yashin tweeted, criticising the delay in Navalny’s departure.

“I want to believe that this wasted time won’t cost Alexei his life.”

Paramedics loading a stretcher into an ambulance that allegedly transported Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at Charite Mitte Hospital Complex where he will receive medical treatment, in Berlin, yesterday.

Swedish PM defends COVID-19 strategy from criticism over tollREUTERS & BLOOMBERG — STOCKHOLM

Sweden has chosen the right strategy in fighting the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19), Prime Minister Stefan Lofven (pictured) said, defending his government’s decision not to adopt a strict lockdown as many European countries have done.

More than 5,800 Swedes have died of COVID 19, a much higher death rate than in neigh-bouring Norway, Denmark and Finland which adopted much tougher measures than Sweden, leading many to question the government’s approach.

But Lofven said Sweden had made the correct choice.

“The strategy that we

adopted, I believe is right — to protect individuals, limit the spread of the infection, etc,” he said in an interview in daily Dagens Nyheter.

“What has been discussed most, and what we did differ-ently in Sweden, was that we did not close schools. Now there

are quite a few people who think we were right.”

While many countries enforced strict lockdowns, Sweden has relied mainly on voluntary measures focused on social distancing, though public gatherings have been limited and care homes — which saw a h e a v y d e a t h t o l l — quarantined.

While Sweden has seen more fatalities than its neigh-bours, it has not been as badly hit as countries like Britain and Spain, which adopted much stricter lockdown measures.

Furthermore, while many parts of Europe are seeing a pick up in new cases as they gradually loosen restrictions on travel and social interactions, Sweden has seen a decline in

both infections and deaths in recent weeks.

Lofven also defended the decision by the Public Health Agency not to enforce the wearing of facemasks, as many European countries have done, to fight the spread of the virus.

“What they are saying, and what I absolutely believe, is that they cannot be the main tool we use,” Lofven said.

“What is important still is social distancing, testing and tracking. Those must be our main focus in order to reduce infection.”

On Thursday, Sweden’s government has decided to join the European Union’s agreement to distribute a coro-navirus vaccine via drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc.

“This will give Sweden access to the vaccine if it’s approved,” the prime minister said at a press conference in Stockholm. “And with that we will be able to take an important step to secure a vaccine for Sweden.”

Sweden expects to get about 6 million doses based on the size of its population, and the country’s health agency has been granted a budget of $229m to finance purchases of the vaccine, according to Lofven.

In recent weeks the Nordic country has seen the pace of infections converge with those of neighbouring Denmark and Norway, despite a dramatic improvement in the number of COVID-19 deaths and cases throughout July.

Serbia mum on fence building near borderAFP — BELGRADE

Serbia’s government declined to comment yesterday on the construction of a fence that was ongoing near its border with North Macedonia, a common crossing point for migrants traversing the Balkan region.

The barrier is being erected on the southern frontier, close to an official border crossing and the Tabanovce transit camp for migrants on North Macedo-nia’s side, according to an AFP photographer.

Images of the fence were initially published by Radio Free Europe earlier in the week, while North Macedonia’s interior ministry told state media that it was set up on Serbian territory.

Belgrade has, however, remained silent, with the interior and foreign ministries,

as well as the Prime Minister’s office, not responding to requests for comment.

According to an order pub-lished on the finance ministry’s website, which laid out condi-tions for crossing private property for the fence, the barrier was commissioned to “block the state border” to “prevent the spread of novel coronavirus” in case of “mass and unauthorised” crossings.

Serbia, a key transit country on the so-called Balkan route, has recently seen a fresh tide of refugees and migrants hoping to reach Western and Northern Europe.

Some 30,000 migrants and refugees registered in the country during the first half of 2020, almost three times the number during the same period last year, according to official data.

Several countries from the

region, including Hungary, North Macedonia and Slovenia, built border barriers during the 2015 migrant crisis, when hun-dreds of thousands of people flowed through the Balkans fleeing war and poverty at home.

That route was officially shuttered in 2016, but traffic has continued — at lower levels — through the region.

When asked to comment, European Commission spokes-person Ana Pisonero-Hern-andez noted that EU funding to help Serbia manage migration, which has amounted to $118m since 2015, does “not include the construction of fences.”

The UN refugee agency office in Serbia said the country “has a sovereign right to control its borders” but also an obli-gation to process asylum requests.

A fence in construction is seen on the Serbian side at the border with North Macedonia near the northern village of Tabanovce, yesterday.

Berlin’s Charite hospital confirmed in a statement that it had admitted Navalny and was carrying out an “extensive medical diagnosis”.

Greece denying pushbacks despite evidence: Watchdog

ANATOLIA — ATHENS

The Greek government has been denying the pushback of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers trying to reach its shores, despite evidence that they have been secretly doing so, a global human rights watchdog said in a report yesterday.

In a recent interview with CNN, Greece Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis denied the accusations, saying: “They are an insult to the Greek Coast Guard that has saved tens of thousands of migrants and refugees.”However, evidence and reports describing the abuses are too many to be ignored, Eva Cosse, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a report.

Cosse, after interviewing victims and witnesses, said that Greek authorities have been seen forcibly pushing back migrants and asylum seekers from Rhodes, Samos, and Symi islands in small inflatable boats.

A victim from Syria described how the Greek Coast Guard “carried out life-threat-ening manoeuvres to force the small boat carrying pas-sengers, including women and children, back to Turkey”, Cosse added.

Cosse added that European Commission, despite being aware of Greece’s actions, has been doing nothing to stop these pushbacks and to hold Greece accountable.

Ukraine reports 2,328 virus cases in 24 hours

Mahatma Gandhi’s iconic glasses sell for $340,000 at UK auctionAFP — LONDON

A pair of gold-plated glasses worn by Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi has sold in Britain for £260,000 (about $340,000), the auction house said.

“We found them just four weeks ago in our letterbox, left there by a gentleman whose uncle had been given them by Gandhi himself,” East Bristol Auctions wrote on Instagram after the sale late Friday.

“An incredible result for an incredible item! Thanks to all those who bid.”

Gandhi was known for giving out old or unwanted

pairs to those in need or those who had helped him.

The non-violent protestor gave the glasses to the vendor’s uncle while he was working for British Petroleum in South Africa during the 1920s or 30s, said the auction house.

The sale price smashed the original estimate of around £15,000.

Auctioneer Andrew Stowe told Sky News earlier this month that the vendor had told him: “If they’re no good, just throw them away.”

When he suggested they might be worth £15,000, “I think he nearly fell off his chair.”

REUTERS — KIEV

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged people to act on health advice yesterday after official data showed daily COVID-19 infections had risen to a record level.

The country saw 2,328 cases of the new coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and 37 deaths of people having tested positive for the virus, data from the national council of security and defence showed.

Infections have risen sharply in recent days and the latest daily total surpassed the previous record of 2,134 set on Thursday, pushing the total number of cases to 102,971. The death toll has risen to 2,244, the figures showed.

Zelenskiy asked people to take seriously the recent jump in the daily tally of new infections, urging them to wear masks and keep social distancing.

“Please help doctors, be careful,” Zelenskiy said. “We

really did not have the first wave (of infections) when it happened in Europe. Now it is coming, now we are growing ... almost daily.”

He said Ukraine had managed to avoid a big number of infections in March through May thanks to a strict lockdown. Yet as soon as restrictions had gradually been lifted, numbers of new daily coronavirus cases

started rising “We are well prepared in

terms of (hospital) places, equipment, number of tests ... But no number of places in hos-pitals, and especially no number of specialists, will help us survive if there is the second and third wave, if it is very powerful,” the president said.“And here the question is only for our people”.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits a supermarket amid the coronavirus pandemic in Bakhmut, in Donetsk Region, recently.

10 SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020EUROPE

Lukashenko orders army to defend bordersAFP — MINSK

Belarus’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko yesterday ordered his defence minister to take “stringent measures” to defend the coun-try’s territorial integrity after mass protests erupted against his claim to election victory.

The 65-year-old, who said he won a sixth presidential term with 80 percent of the vote in the August 9 ballot, made the comments while inspecting mil-itary units in Grodno, near Bela-rus’s border with Poland, according to the president’s press service.

Lukashenko denounced the recent mass protests, which he said were receiving support from Western countries, and ordered the army to defend western Belarus, which he described as “a pearl”.

“It involves taking the most stringent measures to protect the territorial integrity of our country,” Lukashenko said.

His visit comes ahead of large-scale military exercises planned in the Grodno region between August 28 and 31.

The former collective farm director said that Nato troops

in Poland and Lithuania were “seriously stirring” near their borders with Belarus and ordered his troops into full combat readiness.

Both countries denied the accusation.

“The regime is trying to divert attention from Belarus’s internal problems at any cost with totally baseless statements about imaginary external threats,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said.

The Polish president’s chief of staff, Krzysztof Szczerski, for his part dismissed the claim that Poland planned to violate Bela-rusian territorial integrity as “regime propaganda”, calling it “sad and surprising”.

“Poland... has no such intention,” he told the Polish

news agency PAP.Lithuania’s foreign ministry

announced that US Deputy Sec-retary of State Stephen Biegun will visit Vilnius and Russia next week for talks on Belarus and the elections fallout.

Opponents of Europe’s longest serving leader have organised strikes and the largest demonstrations in the ex-Soviet country’s recent history to protest his re-election and demand that he stand down.

The opposition has called for a major rally in Minsk today after more than 100,000 people

flooded onto the streets of the capital and other cities in Belarus last weekend demanding Lukashenko’s resignation.

The European Union this week rejected his re-election and vowed to levy sanctions against what it said was a sub-stantial number of people responsible for rigging the vote and cracking down on protests.

The Belarusian authorities have opened a criminal inves-tigation into the opposition’s Coordination Council, whose members are seeking new

elections and a peaceful tran-sition of power.

Lukashenko has rejected the idea of holding another ballot, dismissed calls to resign and accused the opposition of attempting to seize power.

On Friday, he vowed to “solve the problem” of the protest movement.

Lukashenko’s election chal-lenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who is now in exile in Lithuania, said this week that Belarusians would “never accept the current leadership again” after the crackdown on post-election protests.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko visiting a military firing range near Grodno, in Belarus, yesterday.

Swiss right-wing elects only candidate Chiesa as presidentREUTERS — ZURICH

The Swiss People’s Party (SVP) elected Marco Chiesa from Italian-speaking region Ticino as president of the right-wing party yesterday as it tries to sharpen its profile and rebuild its appeal among voters.

Chiesa, 45, was nominated in a sur-prise move last month after Switzer-land’s biggest party tried for months to find a successor to outgoing president Albert Roesti, who announced last year he was stepping down.

Top of his agenda will likely be the party’s campaign in a September 27 ref-erendum on ending free movement of people with the European Union. Opinion polls suggest a majority in favour of keeping free movement, but if the vote goes the other way bilateral trade agreements between Switzerland and the EU could be at risk.

Chiesa vowed to stick to the party line, saying: “I don’t want to have to watch how Swiss families suffer from the burden of millions of immigrants from the European Union.”

Swiss broadcaster SRG published a poll on Thursday suggesting 61 percent

would vote against the proposal and 35 percent for it.

The trained economist was elected at a party meeting in Brugg Windisch, west of Zurich. He was the only can-didate standing for election, a lack of choice criticised by some delegates at the meeting.

Chiesa was elected to his party’s vice-presidency in 2018. In 2019, he was mentioned as a possible successor to outgoing SVP president Albert Roesti; however, he initially rejected the overtures as his management of the retirement home did not allow him to take on another position. He later resigned from the centre, which opened up the possibility of his nomination.

In July 2020, a selection committee of the SVP tasked with nominating a new party president named Chiesa as its preferred candidate for the post. Andreas Glarner withdrew in favour of Chiesa. Before the election, Alfred Heer also withdrew.

The SVP used to dominate Switzer-land’s political debates with often inflammatory campaigns targeting immigrants and the European Union.

Swiss People’s Party’s (SVP) newly-elected President Marco Chiesa poses with his wife Monja during a party meeting in Brugg Windisch, in Switzerland, yesterday.

Germans experiment on how big gatherings spread COVID-19AP — BERLIN

Germany held a pop concert yesterday to see how those attending would spread coro-navirus.

German researchers studying COVID-19 packed part of a Leipzig arena with volun-teers, collecting data in a “real life” simulation of a pop concert with strict health and safety controls.

About 1,500 people took part in the experiment run by the University Hospital in Halle, each taking a corona-virus (COVID-19) test ahead of time, testing negative, and having to wear protective

masks throughout the day’s testing.

Researchers equipped each volunteer with contact tracers to record their routes in the arena and track the path of the aerosols — the small particles that could carry the virus — they emitted as they mingled and talked. Fluorescent disin-fectants were used to highlight which surfaces at the mock concert were touched most frequently.

German pop singer Tim Bendzko appeared on stage to create as realistic a reaction from the crowd as possible for three scenarios.

Afterward, he said he had

expected the day to feel more sterile and like an experiment, but that the crowd was into the concert.

“We really had a lot of fun,” he said. “We survived drive-in concerts this summer and in that respect, for us this is a first step toward normalcy.”

Under the first scenario, which simulated the very beginning of a pandemic, the concert-goers were kept close together in the room with no social distancing. In the second, the researchers instituted hygiene measures and larger social distances between the volunteers. In the third, a dis-tance of 1.5 metres between

participants was strictly enforced.

Stefan Moritz, who led the study, said researchers had only about a third of the vol-unteers they had hoped for, partially because many Germans are still away on summer holidays and partially due to fears of participating even with the safety measures taken. But he said the exper-iment had gone well.

“We are satisfied with the numbers,” he told reporters. “We have good data quality.”

The results of the study are expected in four to six weeks, he said.

In general, Germany has

been praised for its handling of the pandemic with its rapid response and robust testing. It has registered only 9,267 con-firmed virus deaths so far, one-fourth of Britain’s virus death toll.

But the numbers have been rising recently, and Germany’s disease control centre reported 2,034 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday, the first time the daily national increase has topped 2,000 since the end of April.

The Robert Koch Institute said coronavirus outbreaks are being reported in nursing homes, hospitals, schools and “especially among travelers and

in the context of religious or family events.”

“The trend is very con-cerning,” the agency said.

Germany’s 16 states are in the process of resuming in-class teaching at schools. The pos-sible risks of virus clusters building up in educational insti-tutions and then spreading to families and further into society has been a matter of great concern.

In Berlin, one of the first states to return, at least 41 schools this week reported that students or teachers have become infected, and hundreds of them have been put into quarantine.

Berlin launches initiative to protect trees from heatREUTERS — BERLIN

Residents of Germany’s capital Berlin can do their bit to ensure the city’s trees get enough water during the hot summer months as part of a new neighbourhood initiative.

The platform, dubbed “Giess den Kiez” — which can be trans-lated as “water the ‘hood” — was launched by CityLAB, a foundation-backed body that looks at future concepts for Ber-lin’s metropolitan area.

On an interactive map, users can trace and track 625,000 trees in Berlin, including their type, age and water needs. Once an account has been set up users can exchange information, ena-bling better coordination to take care of trees in the city.

“And each time a tree has been watered it can be entered into the system, with the correct amount of litres which shows other users that you’ve taken care of a tree,” Malgorzata Magdon of the initiative said.

Belarus blocks over 50 news websites amid massive protestsAP — MINSK

Authorities in Belarus have blocked more than 50 news media websites reporting on how the country has been shaken by two weeks of protests demanding that authoritarian President Alex-ander Lukashenko resign after 26 years in power.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists reported the shut-downs yesterday, which including sites for the US-funded Radio Liberty and Belsat, a Polish-funded satellite

TV channel focusing on neigh-boring Belarus.

On Friday, the state pub-lishing house stopped printing two top independent news-papers, the Narodnaya Volya and Komsomolskaya Pravda, citing an equipment malfunction.

Protests unprecedented in Belarus for their size and duration broke out after the August 9 presidential election, which election officials say handed Lukashenko a sixth term in office in a landslide. Pro-testers allege the official results

are fradulent and are calling for Lukashenko to resign.

Lukashenko’s main election challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, has called for another massive show of oppo-sition at a protest Sunday.

“We are closer than ever to our dream,” she said in a video message from Lithuania, where she took refuge after the election. Some previous pres-idential challengers in Belarus have been jailed for years.

Yesterday, hundreds of women dressed in white formed a chain in Minsk as sign

of protest and a larger demon-stration was expected in the evening.

“Threats, intimidation, blocking no longer work. Hun-dreds of thousands of Belaru-sians are telling him ‘go away’’ from all corners and squares,”said Anna Skura-tovich, one of the women in the chain.

Protesters say they are fed up with the country’s declining living standards and have been angered at Lukashenko’s dis-missal of the coronavirus pandemic.

Lukashenko said that Nato troops in Poland and Lithuania were “seriously stirring” near their borders with Belarus and ordered his troops into full combat readiness.

Travellers from France to UK must self-certify no virus symptoms

REUTERS — LONDON

Travellers from France to the United Kingdom will be required to self-certify that they are not suffering corona-virus (COVID-19) symptoms or have been in contact with a confirmed case within 14 days preceding travel, the British government said.

The United Kingdom has said travelers returning from France on or after August 15 should self-isolate upon their return, due to high COVID-19 infection rates in France.

The imposition of quar-antine conditions have hit Britons’ favourite holiday des-tinations in the middle of summer and as the travel industry fights for survival.

Earlier this year, the gov-ernment was criticised for being too slow to lock down at the beginning of the pandemic when many cases were thought to have arrived from holidaymakers returning from Italy.

The UK’s quarantine policy began in June.

Other countries including Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Croatia and Austria are already on the govern-ment’s quarantine list.

Since originating in Wuhan, China last December, COVID-19 has claimed more than 797,900 lives in 188 countries and regions.

More than 22.8 million cases have been reported worldwide, while an excess of 14.6 million patients have recovered, according to figures compiled by US-based Johns hopkins University.

Italy tops 1,000infections for firsttime since MayANATOLIA — ROME

Italy yesterday reported 1,071 more infections of the novel coronavirus, topping 1,000 daily cases for the first time since mid-May, new data by the Health Ministry showed.

The country has seen a constant surge in new cases over the past few weeks, with scientists blaming holiday goers coming back from high-risk destinations and large gatherings of people enjoying the nightlife at the peak of the summer season.

Italy has been one of the worst-hit countries globally —with more than 35,400 fatal-ities — but has managed to contain the outbreak thanks to strict lockdown measures that the government started easing only in May.

Several thousand lightning bolts have hit California in recent days, starting fires that left thick smoke blanketing the region.

11SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020 AMERICAS

California fires force thousands to flee as more blazes fearedAFP — LOS ANGELES

Some of California’s largest ever fires raged across the state yes-terday, forcing tens of thou-sands from their homes as fore-casters warned of further blazes sparked by lightning strikes.

Several thousand lightning bolts have hit California in recent days, starting fires that left thick smoke blanketing the region.

“The western US and Great Plains are shrouded under a vast area of smoke due to ongoing wildfires that extend from the Rockies to the West Coast,” the National Weather Service said yesterday. “With severe drought and exceptionally dry fuels present, dry thunder-storms could spark additional wildfires this weekend.”

The two largest blazes — dubbed the LNU Lightning Complex and the SCU Lightning Complex — have burned about 600,000 acres (240,000 hec-tares) and destroyed 565 struc-tures. The LNU fire covered 314,207 acres by yesterday morning, making it the second-largest fire in California history.

About 2,600 firefighters are tackling the two blazes, which were described by officials as 15 percent and 10 percent con-tained, respectively.

“We simply haven’t seen anything like this in many,

many years,” California Gov-ernor Gavin Newsom said.

“Many of these firefighters have been on the lines for 72 hours, and everybody is running on fumes,” Assemblyman Jim Wood of the Healdsburg district in Sonoma told the Los Angeles Times. “Our first responders are working to the ragged edge of everything they have.”

Six deaths have been linked to the latest flare-ups, with four bodies recovered on Thursday, including three from a burned house in a rural area of Napa County. But many residents have refused evacuation orders.

“At least if we’re here, we know exactly what’s going on,” Napa resident John Newman, 68, told the San Francisco Chronicle as he sat in a lawn chair in his driveway. “Family is worried, but it’s a little dif-ferent if you’re here firsthand.”

Nature reserves were also ravaged. The Big Basin Red-woods State Park said that some of its historic buildings had been

destroyed by flames.The park, where giant

redwood trees of well over 500 years old can be found, was “extensively damaged,” it said.

About 119,000 people have been evacuated from the area, with many struggling to find shelter and hesitating to go to centers set up by authorities because of coronavirus risks.

Some in counties south of San Francisco opted to sleep in

trailers along the Pacific Ocean as they fled nearby fires, while tourists were urged to leave to free up accommodation for those evacuating their houses.

Fire crews, surveillance equipment and other fire-fighting hardware was being sent from states including Oregon, New Mexico and Texas.

But faced with the sheer scope of the disaster, Governor Newsom also asked for help

from Canada and Australia, which he said had “the world’s best firefighters”.

Most of the fires are burning in unpopulated areas, and statewide they have blazed through some 771,000 acres — an area the size of Rhode Island state — he said. In San Fran-cisco, the smell of smoke lin-gered for the third consecutive day, with authorities urging res-idents to stay indoors.

Docked boats burn on Lake Berryessa during the LNU Lightning Complex fire in Napa, California.

An image obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) yesterday shows Tropical Storm Laura over Puerto Rico and approaching Haiti; and Tropical Storm Marco between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula.

Two tropical storms a potential double threat to US Gulf CoastAP — SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

Two tropical storms advanced across the Caribbean yesterday as potentially historic threats to the US Gulf Coast, one dumping rain on Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands while the other was pushing through the gap between Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba.

Tropical Storms Laura and Marco were both projected to approach the US Gulf Coast at or close to hurricane force. The current, uncertain track would take them to Texas or Louisiana.

Two hurricanes have never appeared in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time, according to records going back to at least 1900, said Colorado State Uni-versity hurricane researcher Phil

Klotzbach. The last time two tropical storms were in the Gulf together was in 1959, he said.

The last time two storms made landfall in the United States within 24 hours of each other was in 1933, Klotzbach said.

The projected track from the US National Hurricane Center might put both storms together in the Gulf on Tuesday, with Marco hitting near the Texas-Louisiana border and Laura making landfall a little less than a day later, though both tracks remain uncertain.

Laura began flinging rain across Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands yesterday morning and was expected to drench the Dominican Republic, Haiti and parts of Cuba during the day on its

westward course.Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda

Vázquez declared a state of emergency and warned that flooding could be worse than what Tropical Storm Isaias unleashed three weeks ago.

The storm was centered about 95km southwest of Ponce on Puerto Rico’s central southern coast early yesterday afternoon, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph). It was moving west at 18 mph (30 kph).

Marco, meanwhile, was strengthening while centered about 85km southwest of Cuba’s western tip, headed to the north-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph). It had maximum sus-tained winds of 65 mph (100 kph). It was expected to become a hurricane later.

Coronavirus pandemic is stabilising in Brazil: WHOAFP — GENEVA

The coronavirus pandemic is stabilising in Brazil and any reversal of its rampant spread in the vast country would be “a success for the world”, the WHO said on Friday.

The World Health Organi-zation’s emergencies director Michael Ryan told a virtual press conference that there was a “clear downward trend in many parts of Brazil”.

Brazil has the world’s second-highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths after the United States.

According to the WHO’s COVID-19 dashboard, more than 3.45 million people have tested positive for the virus in Brazil, with 111,100 people having lost their lives.

The country has recorded nearly 6,900 deaths and more than 290,000 cases in the last seven days, according to the UN health agency.

“The acceleration of cases has stabilised but there’s still a

very high number of cases and a large number of deaths,” Ryan told reporters. “Credit to the health workers and the communities in Brazil for taking the necessary actions to stabilise the situation.

“We’re in that difficult period in Brazil where it looks like things could be getting better. “The question is: is this a lull, can this be continued and can we see that downward trend?”

Ryan said some parts of the South American country were showing a clear downturn, while other areas were expe-riencing increases, with the disease still very prevalent and unstable in its transmission.

However, in general, “the trend in Brazil is stable or downwards. That needs to keep going”, the Irish epidemiologist said. Latin America represents nine percent of the world’s population but has registered 40 percent of the total COVID-19 deaths in the last two months. “There is still much to do in Brazil,” said Ryan.

'Brazil military plane flew illegal Amazon miners'AFP — SAO PAULO

Brazilian prosecutors alleged that a military airplane was inappropriately used to fly a group of illegal miners oper-ating in the Amazon rainforest to meet with Environment Min-ister Ricardo Salles in Brasilia.

The allegation is the latest controversy for far-right Pres-ident Jair Bolsonaro’s environment minister, whom activists accuse of working to dismantle environ-mental protections rather than promote them.

Prosecutors in the northern state of Para said the Air Force plane used to transport the group to Brasilia was originally deployed to fight environmental crimes in the Amazon region. Instead, it “was used to transport criminals,” they said.

The incident occurred in early August on the Munduruku and Sai Cinza indigenous res-ervations. Like many such res-ervations, they have been overrun by wildcat gold miners, even though mining on indig-enous lands is illegal in Brazil.

Activists say illegal mining is a major cause of environmental destruction in the world’s biggest rainforest and a threat to indig-enous communities.

However, Bolsonaro, a climate-change skeptic, has pushed for indigenous reserva-tions to be opened up to mining and agriculture.

According to prosecutors, Salles had visited the Munduruku and Sai Cinza region the day before, after which the planned operation against environmental crimes was cancelled.

US closes lanes, adds checks at Mexico border to contain virusREUTERS — WASHINGTON

The United States on Friday closed lanes at select ports of entry at the border with Mexico and will conduct more secondary checks to limit non-essential travel and the spread of coronavirus, a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official said.

Non-essential travel has been restricted at the border since March, but US citizens and permanent residents can still enter the United States from Mexico. The new measures are aimed at those travellers, the CBP official said.

US President Donald Trump has taken a series of sweeping steps to scale back immigration during the coronavirus pan-demic, including emergency border rules that allow US authorities to rapidly deport migrants arrested at the border.

CBP said it would take steps to reduce non-essential travel at more than a dozen border crossings in Texas, Arizona and California. The wait times for passenger vehicles at those ports of entry on Friday evening ranged from no wait to several hours.

Violence across Colombia leaves 17 deadREUTERS — BOGOTA

Three attacks in the last 24 hours have left at least 17 dead across Colombia in regions contested by drug traffickers, criminal groups and dissidents of the demobilized FARC guer-rillas, officials and local media reported yesterday.

Separate attacks each reported leaving six people dead took place in the Colombian provinces of Narino and Cauca, while a further five people were also reported killed in Arauca province.

“We don’t know if the dead form part of an organization or if they are family members,” General Nairo Martinez, com-mander of the Army’s Hercules Task Force, said in reference to the killings in Narino.

President Ivan Duque lamented the deaths in a message via his Twitter account. “We are pained by the deaths caused by the violence driven by drug trafficking and terrorism,” he said.

Eight people were shot dead by an unidentified armed group in a contested drug traf-ficking area in Narino province a week ago. Another five people were killed in an attack in a neighborhood in the east of the city of Cali on August 11.

An April 3, 2019 file picture shows actress Lori Loughlin, and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, leaving the federal courthouse, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Lori Loughlin to serve two months in prison in US admissions scamAFP — NEW YORK

American actress Lori Loughlin was given a two-month prison term on Friday after admitting to conspiracy to commit fraud as part of her role in a sprawling college admissions scandal.

Loughlin — best known for playing Aunt Becky in the 1980s-90s hit sitcom “Full House” — and her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, were among some 50 people indicted over an elaborate scam to secure spots for already priv-ileged children at prestigious US universities.

Loughlin apologized through tears during her sentencing hearing for her “awful decision,” saying: “I went along with a plan to give my daughters an unfair advantage. I thought I was acting out of love for my children. But in reality it only undermined my daughters’ abilities and accomplishments.”

Loughlin is to surrender to the US Bureau of Prisons before 2pm on November 19. She also faces two years of supervised release, a $150,000 fine and 100 hours of community service.

Giannulli, 57, will serve five months and must surrender the

same day as his wife. His sen-tence included two years of

supervised release, a $250,000 fine and 250 hours of

community service. Both hearings took place via Zoom video conference due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In delivering both punish-ments Nathaniel Gorton, a federal judge in Boston, accepted their plea deals and followed the prosecution’s sen-tencing recommendations.

Gorton said he was “dumb-founded” that someone with “a fairytale life” now stood before him “a convicted felon”.

Friday’s hearings end a legal saga that saw Loughlin and her husband admit to paying $500,000 to gain admission for

their two daughters at the Uni-versity of Southern California as recruits to the crew team -- a sport neither had ever trained in. Loughlin was among the most high-profile personalities indicted in the wide-reaching case. She and her husband were initially charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, bribery and transfer funds.

The actress said she had realized her actions only served to “exacerbate existing inequal-ities.” “I am truly, profoundly and deeply sorry,” she said. “I’m ready to face the consequences and make amends.”

The prospect of a slow count of an expected 50 million votes cast by mail — one consequence of the coronavirus pandemic — has raised concerns of political turmoil and legal challenges that could further delay a result, for the presidential as well as congressional races.

12 SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020AMERICAS

Trump warns election vote count could take ‘weeks’

AFP & AP — WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump warned on Friday that the results of the November 3 pres-idential election could take weeks or months to determine.

Amid concerns that a wave of mail-in ballots could over-whelm the post office and local election bodies, Trump sug-gested the traditional election-night verdict could be delayed. “You’ll never have an election count on November 3,” Trump said in a speech to the Council of National Policy, a conserv-ative activist group. “You’re not going to be able to know the end of this election, in my opinion, for weeks, months, maybe never,” he said.

The prospect of a slow count of an expected 50 million votes cast by mail — one con-sequence of the coronavirus pandemic — has raised con-cerns of political turmoil and legal challenges that could further delay a result, for the presidential as well as congres-sional races.

Trump, who polls show is

trailing challenger Joe Biden, alleged that Democrats were promoting universal mail-in voting to manipulate the results. But he suggested a systemic problem as well. “We’re not pre-pared for this, 51 million ballots. It will be a tremendous embar-rassment for the country,” he said. “This is a very serious problem for a democracy.”

On Wednesday, a top US official for election security said his biggest worry is of outside interference in a likely count of the votes the day after the November 3 election.

While meddling by Russia, China, Iran and others in the run-up to the poll is a concern, “I’m worried about Election Day on,” said Bill Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center. He said external actors could use hacks like ran-somware and other cyberattacks against the infrastructure for delivering, counting and

transmitting the votes. “We need to prepare as a nation that the election will not be decided on November 3,” he said.

“I’m worried about ran-somware attacks. I’m worried about cyberattacks. I’m worried about the inability of people to vote because of cyber penetra-tions and ransomware.” “So for me I worry about not up to the election, from the influence per-spective, I’m worried about the interference perspective come November 3, 4 and all the way through November,” he said.

Meanwhile, the House opened a rare session yesterday to address mail delivery disrup-tions, launching debate on leg-islation that would reverse recent changes in US postal Service operations and send $25bn in emergency funds to shore up the agency ahead of the November election.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the postal service will be "election

central” as she recalled law-makers to Washington in a highly unusual election year as millions of Americans are expected to opt for mail-in ballots to avoid polling places during the coro-navirus pandemic.

"We are here today because our democracy is being eroded by this administration,” said Rep Jim McGovern, D-Mass, the chairman of the rules committee, opening debate. He argued Pres-ident Trump is trying to halt mail-in ballots, afraid that so many Americans will vote he could lose the White House.

But Republicans countered that complaints about mail delivery disruptions are over-blown, and no emergency funding is needed right now. With the majority, Democrats are expected to easily pass the legislation. But Republicans are unlikely to sign on, and the bill is certain to stall in the GOP-held Senate.

US President Donald Trump delivers remarks at the 2020 Council for National Policy meeting in Arlington, Virginia, US, on Friday.

Republican convention to begin tomorrow; First Lady to speak on TuesdayAFP — WASHINGTON

Launching political grenades — and real fireworks — Pres-ident Donald Trump’s Repub-lican party will use next week’s convention to ignite its base ahead of the most divisive US election in decades.

As the Democrats demon-strated in their on-screen-only convention to nominate Joe Biden this week, the 2020 pres-idential election is already deep in untested territory.

The Republican version, which starts on Monday and climaxes on Thursday with Trump accepting his nomi-nation for a second term, will turn things further on their head. Rather than go online or seek an alternate venue, Trump will give his speech from the White House itself — an act of bravado that stretches ethics rules and, while legal, tramples over presidential etiquette.

He has justified his choice as the most practical, cost effective measure after COVID-19 forced cancelation of Republican plans for a tra-ditional convention with big crowds in North Carolina.

As Trump says, he already lives in the White House. But by making the presidential res-idence his political stage and applying to turn the adjacent National Mall into a fireworks launchpad, Trump is also delib-erately showing off his power, in contrast to Biden’s low-key, online approach.

The formal nominating part of the convention will take place on Monday in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a small group of Republican delegates — and possibly Trump — attending in person.

First Lady Melania Trump, who came to the United States as an immigrant from Slovenia

and rarely opens up about her personal life, is expected to make remarks from the White House’s iconic Rose Garden on Tuesday.

Vice-President Mike Pence, who is important to bringing right-wing Christian voters to Trump’s banner, will give his speech in Baltimore on Wednesday.

The rest of the time before Trump’s finale on Thursday is expected to feature family members, who are an integral part of his campaign, congres-sional allies and special guests highlighting the President’s potent blend of patriotism and anti-socialist rhetoric.

Republican invitations have reportedly gone out to Patricia and Mark McCloskey, who became rightwing folk heroes when they were filmed waving firearms at a group of pro-testers marching down their street in St Louis.

Although later charged with a weapons violation, the couple have been lionized by Trump and his supporters on Fox News and across the con-servative media sphere.

Another invite symbolizing Republicans’ sense of outrage will be Nicholas Sandmann, a recent graduate of the Cov-ington Catholic High School. He became famous in 2019 when he was portrayed by major media outlets as taunting a Native American elder, while wearing one of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” baseball caps, during a school visit to Washington.

The account was based on a viral video but subsequent footage cast doubt over the entire story and Sandmann’s family sued, receiving financial settlements from CNN and The Washington Post — and becoming symbols of conserv-ative anger at the media.

Steve Bannon says he is victim of ‘political hit job’AFP — WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump's former top strategist Steve Bannon, who was arrested this week for defrauding donors to a Mexico border wall fundraising cam-paign, has said he is the victim of a “political hit job”.

“I’m in this for the long haul. I’m in this for the fight. I’m going to continue to fight,” he said on Friday on his podcast, Bannon’s War Room. “This was to stop and intimidate people that want to talk about the wall. This is to stop and intimidate people that have president Trump’s back on building the wall.”

Bannon, who is credited with orches-trating Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential bid, on Thursday denied one count of

conspiracy to commit wire fraud and another of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The 66-year-old was released on bail of $5m.

Prosecutors said the online crowd-funding campaign known as “We Build the Wall” raised more than $25m, which the defendants promised would go towards construction of a southern border barrier but siphoned off instead.

Once a prominent and trusted presi-dential ally, Bannon was behind some of Trump’s most controversial moves, including his ban on some travellers from abroad and the decision to pull the US out of the Paris climate change agreement. After frequent clashes with others in the White House, including Trump, Bannon was pushed out in August 2017.

Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon exits the Manhattan Federal Court, following his arraignment hearing for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, on Thursday.

Washington zoo welcomes ‘precious’ new baby pandaAFP — WASHINGTON

Washington zoo officials her-alded the arrival of “a precious giant panda cub” on Friday, fol-lowing the much-watched birth of panda Mei Xiang’s latest baby, four years after her last pregnancy.

The new mother was exhib-iting typical panda mom behavior like “nursing her cub and cuddling it close,” the Smithsonian’s National Zoo said on Twitter. “We’re overjoyed to share that Mei Xiang gave birth at 6:35pm and is caring for her newborn attentively,” it said, adding that mom and cub “appear to be doing well”.

Fans of the panda were able to follow her labor live thanks to a “panda cam” accessible on the zoo’s website 24 hours a day — although high interest caused the feature to crash at some points. Mei Xiang, who is 22 years old, was artificially inseminated on March 22 with the frozen semen of Tian Tian, another resident giant panda who will turn 23 later this month, according to the zoo.

Since the two pandas’ arrival in 2000, Mei Xiang has given birth to three surviving cubs: males Tai Shan in 2005 and Bei Bei in 2015, and a female, Bao Bao, in 2013.

The three were returned to China on their fourth birthdays under a partnership contract in which China owns the pandas.

Mei Xiang and Tian Tian themselves will be returned to China next December. Under the US-China agreement, the

National Zoo pays $500,000 per year towards panda con-servation efforts in China.

Fewer than 2,000 giant pandas still live in their natural habitat in China, while some 600 more live in zoos and breeding centers around the world, according to the Washington zoo.

Genetically similar to the bear, pandas feed exclusively on bamboo. They weigh in at approximately 100kg and measure up to six feet long.

This August 24, 2016 file photo shows female giant panda Mei Xiang resting in her enclosure at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.

Rhode Island reopened day cares without major virus outbreaks: StudyAFP — WASHINGTON

Rhode Island, the smallest US state, was able to reopen day care programs in the summer without high rates of corona-virus spread, a study said.

Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which wrote the study, held it up as an example that could be repli-cated across the country.

“I think this is an inspiring article to tell individuals that there is a path where one can use or partner with their public health authorities and safely get these childcare programs reo-pened,” he said. A total of 666 out of 891 childcare programs, both center- and home-based, reopened in Rhode Island on June 1 following a significant decline in cases and hospitali-zations in the state.

Officials imposed measures like universal masking for adults, daily symptom screening for everyone, routine disinfection, reduced class sizes (first up to 12, and later 20), and maintaining

stable bubbles of staff and children. The programs also had to conform to strict quarantining and contact tracing measures if an outbreak occurred.

An important caveat is that while the report said these pro-grams had a capacity for 18,945 children, it is not known how many children actually attended over the period studied.

Between June 1 and July 31, 52 cases — either confirmed or probable — were reported from a total of 29 programs. In total, four of the 666 programs saw “secondary” transmission — that is to say an infection or infections that occurred within the center itself. These hap-pened either when adults moved between classes or when children infected other children in the same group.

Despite the low number of cases, their impact was still sub-stantial: In total, 89 classes were shut down and 853 staff and children had to quarantine for 14 days. The state has a popu-lation of just over one million and is split into five counties.

Former officer in Green Berets charged with spying for MoscowAFP — WASHINGTON

A former officer in the US Special Forces Green Berets was arrested on Friday and charged with spying for Moscow, the Justice Department said.

US-born Peter Rafael Dzi-binski Debbins, 45, was recruited by the Russians as early as 1996, before he had joined the army but after several trips to Russia, the native home of his mother, the department added.

While he was still at uni-versity he met with Russian agents in Chelyabinsk while he was studying there, telling them he was a “son of Russia” and was politically pro-Russian, according to the allegations.

The next year Debbins — whom his Russian contacts gave the cover name of Ikar Lesnikov — married his Russian girlfriend, whose father was a military officer, and he joined the US mil-itary. A few years later he told the Russians he wanted to leave the military, but they pressed him instead to remain and encouraged him to join the special forces. He did so in 2001, and two years later was made a captain based in Germany and later Azerbaijan with high-level security clearance.

He left the service in 2005 but was in regular contact with the Russians while involved in business in Minnesota.

The last contact with his Russian handlers mentioned in the indictment was in 2011, when he told them he was moving to Washington. That year, according to his LinkedIn profile, he began working for a series of Washington-area defence and intelligence con-tractors, and studying at the Institute of World Politics, which focuses on national security and intelligence.

He was charged with one count of conspiracy to supply US defence information to a foreign government, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

BUSINESSPAGE | 14 PAGE | 14

13SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020

Rabobank joins major

lenders reviewing

commodity trade

finance

Dollar gains against

euro for first week

since mid-June

after key data

Global trade to stabilise further as major economies re-openA cautious optimism has continuously marched ahead over the last few months, as several advanced economies gradually “re-opened” their activities, hopefully leaving the peak of the pandemic shock behind. The stabili-sation of the COVID-19 spread and aggressive policy stimulus produced a signif-icant reversal of economic trends, from a rapid but deep depression to what so far appears to be a recovery to close to previous levels in the medium term. At the time of writing, a broad based stabi-lisation is taking place globally, igniting not only the badly hit service sector but also manufacturing, as expressed by the bounce in surveys with purchasing managers (Purchasing Managers Indices or PMIs).

Several months into the tentative rebound, this analysis delves into the figures of one of the most reliable gauges of real

activity, i.e., global trade. Exports of early-reporting

and highly open economies of East Asia, which are a key coincident indicator of overall trade dynamics, are so far down 11% y/y in July 2020. While this represents a significant downturn, it is far off from the collapse experienced in April, when y/y exports crumbled by more than 19%. Moreover, a smoother trend-line of 3-month average y/y figures point to the beginning of a turning point for exports, with the trend gradually moving upwards after the sharp crash.

M o s t i m p o r t a n t l y , however, four reasons point to promising signs that the turning point in global trade will gain momentum.

First, last month (July), exports of early reporting

East Asian economies expanded on a month-on-month basis for the first time since January 2020. After 5 months of decline, USD export values from key Asian economies increased by 6% from June to July. Exports for Asia and Europe, in par-ticular, have picked up sub-stantially, suggesting a quick “re-opening” rebound.

Second, transportation activity, a key leading indi-cator for incoming demand and exports, had also started to point to additional strength. The Dow Jones Transportation Average, an equity index comprised of airlines, trucking, marine transportation, railroad and delivery companies, whose performance traditionally leads exports by 3 months, are not only signalling for the beginning of a recovery but for a significant acceleration over the next few months.

Third, a backlog of new orders is set to reach

producers globally, after several months of supply-side disruption and inventory drawdowns. The COVID-19 shock affected the export-intensive manufac-turing sector after 19 months of steep industrial deceler-ation, when the manufac-turing cycle was ripe to turn into expansive mode. The build-up of inventories related to preventive measures against disruption in US-China trade relations in 2018 were gradually drawn down over 2019, requiring new orders and an increase in trade flows. The pandemic did not completely wipe out the need for those new orders.

Fourth, the pandemic has accelerated secular or long-term consumption trends that are traditionally export-intensive, such as software, electronics and communi-cation equipment. Working from home requirements are propping up the demand for

hardware and electronics. The adoption of 5G tech-

nology and the required IT infrastructure for its proper functioning is boosting demand for the semicon-ductor industry.

All in all, trade is so far

reinforcing other positive signs of an early recovery

from the global recession. Should the pandemic stabilize further and extraordinary policy support continue, activity and trade will likely accelerate even more.

Key indicators for global trade(y/y, %)

QNB ECONOMIC COMMENTARY

Al Attiyah Foundation: Weekly energy market reviewTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Oil prices lost about 1 percent on Friday as the economic recovery worldwide runs into stumbling blocks due to renewed Covid-19 lockdowns and on worries about rising crude supply. The eurozone’s economic recovery from its deepest downturn on record stalled this month as pent-up demand, unleashed by the easing of lockdowns in July, dwindled a survey showed. By contrast, US housing and man-ufacturing survey data came in better than expected.

Brent crude futures settled at $44.35 a barrel, down 55 cents or 1.2 percent, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled at $42.34 a barrel, falling 1.1 percent. Brent fell about 1 percent for the week, although WTI saw a weekly rise of nearly 1 percent. In demand, India’s crude oil imports fell in July to their lowest level since 2010, while US motorists drove 13 percent fewer miles in June than a year earlier, according the US Department of Transport.

Putting further pressure on oil prices, Libya’s national oil company said it could restart oil exports after the North African country’s interna-tionally recognised gov-ernment in Tripoli announced a ceasefire. Those additional barrels would add to the output from OPEC+. The group has been focused on ensuring members that had overpro-duced against their commit-ments would cut output.

An internal report showed the group wanted oversupply between May and July com-pensated for with cuts this month and next, Reuters reported. The report also showed OPEC+ expects oil demand in 2020 to fall by 9.1 million barrels per day (mbpd), and by as much as 11.2 mbpd if there is a resurgence of Covid-19 infections.

Asian spot LNG prices jumped to a multi-month high earlier last week, although they eased slightly towards the end of the week on expectations of

more supply from the US. The average LNG price for October delivery into Northeast Asia was estimated at about $4.10 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), up 40 cents from the previous week, but down about 10 to 20 cents from earlier this week.

Expectations of more cargoes from the US as well as news that the maintenance at Gorgon will not be as extensive as initially thought are expected to weigh on prices next week.

Chevron Corp plans to shut Train 1 at its Gorgon LNG plant in Australia in early October and Train 3 in January 2021 for inspections on key equipment in the processing units. Its train 2 is expected to restart pro-duction in early September after maintenance was extended for two months.

Buyers are expected to cancel up to 10 LNG cargoes for October loading from the US, the lowest number in months as prices i

n Asia and Europe recover. The exact number of cancel-lations was not immediately clear, but several trade sources estimated a range of three to ten, much lower than the 40 to 45 likely cancelled in July and August. As a result, Henry Hub prices moved high last week, closing at $2.45 per mmBtu on Friday.

European gas prices have also increased this month due to lower Russian gas flows. Analysts now expect winter LNG prices to rise to $5-6 per mmbtu as the market tightens. Both the TTF and NBP prices saw weekly gains last week, with both benchmarks closing above $2.75 per mmBtu.

South Africa seeks proposals for 2,000MW of emergency powerREUTERS — CAPE TOWN

South Africa has issued a request for proposals to procure 2,000 megawatts of emergency power, a step needed to help plug a severe energy shortage, the department of energy said yesterday.

South Africa’s state-owned power utility Eskom has been forced to cut power regularly, hobbling economic growth in Africa’s most industrialised country as unreliable coal-fired plants struggle to generate enough electricity to meet demand.

Scheduled blackouts, known as load shedding, have resumed as South Africa has eased strict

lockdown restrictions to contain the new coronavirus and has re-opened power-hungry indus-tries, such as mining, in a bid to kick-start a weak economy.

During load shedding, which is meant to protect the national power grid from complete col-lapse, residents and businesses are typically left without elec-tricity for a couple of hours at a time.

In December, South Africa issued a request for information (RFI) to source between 2,000 and 3,000 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity to be con-nected in the shortest time, at the least cost.

“All power procured under this programme is expected to

be fully operational by not later than the end of June 2022,” the department said in Saturday’s statement, adding it expected to attract around 40 billion rand ($2.33 billion) of investment.

In February, Turkey’s Kar-powership, one of the world’s largest suppliers of floating power plants, said it had sub-mitted plans to provide “several” ships capable of alleviating the country’s power shortages.

The department of energy said on Saturday that bidders would need to conform to South Africa’s policies designed to broaden economic participation for the black majority and to make commitments to job cre-ation and skills development.

Climate fund for poor nations vows to drive green COVID-19 recoveryREUTERS — BARCELONA

The Green Climate Fund has promised developing nations it will ramp up efforts to help them tackle climate challenges as they strive to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, approving $879m in backing for 15 new projects around the world.

At a four-day virtual board meeting ending late Friday, the fund added Afghanistan and Sudan to a list of more than 100 countries receiving a total of $6.2bn to reduce planet-heating emissions and enhance climate resilience.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was set up under UN climate talks in 2010 to help developing nations tackle global warming, and started allocating money in 2015.

Executive Director Yannick Glemarec (pictured) said the fund had “a key role to play to maintain climate ambition in the era of COVID-19” and would aim to improve the speed and efficiency of its response to developing country needs.

Board co-chair Nauman Bashir Bhatti, from Pakistan, said climate finance would be crucial for recovery from the

pandemic and the fund needed to increase support “even during these difficult times”.

Those promises came as small island states criticised the pace and size of GCF assistance, saying they were now strug-gling with the economic blow from the pandemic on top of climate change impacts such as rising seas and stronger storms.

Fiji’s U.N. Ambassador Satyendra Prasad said COVID-19 risked worsening the already high debt burden of small island nations, as tourism dived.

“The importance of the (GCF)... in accelerating trans-formative climate action in this present decade cannot be understated,” he added.

He told the Thomson Reuters Foundation island nations were struggling to access other sources of finance and urged the GCF to boost aid to help them prepare project proposals and to release funding for approved projects faster.

The Alliance of Small Island States said its members repre-sented less than 10 percent of total funding requests.

The GCF this week approved three new projects

for island nations, including strengthening buildings to withstand hurricanes in Antigua and Barbuda, and installing solar power systems on farmland on Fiji’s Ovalau island.

It also gave the green light to payments rewarding reduc-tions in deforestation in Colombia and Indonesia between 2014 and 2016.

But more than 80 green groups issued an open letter ahead of the meeting opposing such funding.

They said deforestation had since spiked and countries should not be rewarded for “paper reductions” in carbon emissions calculated from favourable baselines.

Liane Schalatek, who leads climate finance work for the

Heinrich Böll Foundation North America, said the fund should take a hard look at whether the forest emission reductions it is paying for would be per-manent. It should also ensure the funding protects and ben-efits forest communities and indigenous people, she told the T h o m s o n R e u t e r s Foundation.

Other new projects included one for zero-defor-estation cocoa production in Ivory Coast, providing rural vil-lages in Senegal and Afghan-istan with solar mini-grids, and conserving biodiversity on Indian Ocean islands.

The fund said initiatives like these would create jobs and support a green recovery from the coronavirus crisis.

The board also accepted Senegal’s La Banque Agricole and the United Nations Indus-trial Development Organization as partners that can implement projects with fund money.

But Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) put its accreditation application on hold after cam-paigners argued the GCF should not work with a company that lends to developers of coal-power plants, though it has ruled out backing new ones.

Amazon consumer business CEO Jeff Wilke to retire next yearIANS — SAN FRANCISCO

Jeff Wilke, the CEO of Amazon’s worldwide consumer division, is set to retire early next year after serving the company for over two decades.

Dave Clark, Amazon’s Senior Vice-President of Retail Operations, will succeed Wilke, Amazon said in a statement.

In a memo to employees, Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos called Wilke his “tutor”.

Wilke, who joined the company in 1999, is often credited with shaping the logistics system that the e-com-merce giant has today.

14 SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020BUSINESS

The all-new Mercedes-Benz Sprinter available in QatarTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Nasser Bin Khaled (NBK) Auto-mobiles, the Authorised General Distributor of Mercedes-Benz in Qatar, presents the all-new Mercedes-Benz Sprinter in Qatar. It is available now at Mercedes-Benz showroom on Salwa Road.

The new Sprinter elevates the benchmark for the large van segment, offering an innovative and diverse range of product features that serves specific market needs more effectively than ever before. Through its technology and intelligence, the new Sprinter offers every cus-tomer a model tailored precisely

to his or her needs.The Sprinter transitions from

a commercial vehicle with pure utility value to an impressive business card for commercial fleets and businesses. It pioneers the new design idiom of Mer-cedes-Benz Vans and embodies the inherent emotional appeal and intelligence.

The Sprinter has different priorities dependent on the cus-tomers’ needs and requirements. Ranging from the basic specifi-cation variant for customers who value proven Sprinter attributes such as standard-fit electronic stability program (ESP) and standard safety equipment like Crosswind Assist, through to the

highest specification model where high-resolution touch-screens and high-quality mate-rials determine the visual impression and ambience.

The stowage compartment concept exemplifies the adapt-ability of the interior. A choice of open or closed compartments, and a lockable compartment within the roof liner in the cockpit area, enable the config-uration to be tailored precisely to the given requirements for the workplace behind the wheel.

The desire for multiple indi-vidualisation options is con-tinued in the temperature reg-ulation, with a new advanced air conditioning system ideal for the

MENA region. Found in a separate control

panel below the display for the telematic system, the modular construction of the ventilation system allows both the inte-gration of a standard heating system and the use of a roof-mounted air conditioning system with a separate cooling circuit e.g. for passenger transport in hot countries.

The high-performance overhead air conditioning system supplements the air conditioning at the front to up to 7 kW with an additional 11 kW of rear cooling output, both running on independent cir-cuits, to reach a possible com-bined total of 18 kW to deliver the ultimate in climate comfort in the passenger compartment. The powerful one-zone auto-matic climate control system

THERMOTRONIC automatically regulates the fan, air distri-bution and temperature to the comfort level of a passenger car.

Mercedes-Benz Vans’ role as a driver of innovation and a pioneer in the introduction of modern safety technologies in the large van segment.

Modern safety and assistance systems play a par-ticularly important role in this segment throughout the region, as commercially used vehicles are often in operation on a daily basis, covering long mileages and must remain controllable even at the limits despite their relatively large dimensions.

With the presentation of the new Sprinter, a whole range of optional safety and assistance systems is now available from Mercedes-Benz Vans that were

previously maintained within the passenger car series. These include the radar-based dis-tance control system DIS-TRONIC, Active Brake Assist and Active Lane Keeping Assist. The Sprinter comes also with standard-fit Crosswind Assist, Active Brake Assist and Lane Keeping Assist. 3 camera solu-tions, from the reversing camera with rear view mirror display to the 360 degrees camera, are optionally available to further enhance the good overall view from the cockpit.

The optionally available LED high performance head-lamps provide for optimum illumination of the carriageway in dark. Standard fit airbag can help the driver in a collision. An additional 5 airbags are optionally available for driver and co-driver.

The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter.

Qatar Automobiles Company continues its offer on full range of Mitsubishi vehiclesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Automobiles Company, the authorized distributor of Mit-subishi Motors Corporation in Qatar, continues its offer on the full range of Mitsubishi vehicles 2020 models, with monthly installments and package of benefits.

Valid until August 31, the offer includes Montero Sport, Out-lander, Eclipse cross, ASX and the Mirage. The amazing offer has several benefits including 1-year free comprehensive insurance, 1-year free registration,5-year warranty with unlimited mileage, and 1 year or 20,000 km free service. The monthly installment starts from 999 Qatari Riyals, with no down payment, 3 months grace period and the option of in-house financing through NBK

Financial Services (terms and conditions apply).

Montero SportThe 2020 Montero Sport gets

a fresh new face. The updated look features the new Dynamic Shield front grill, enhanced front bumper design and new LED and fog lights to give the car more tough yet smooth and modern look. On the back, the layout of rear lamps was changed, signal lights and brake lights’ positions have been switched, with a new spoiler out back adding a smoked finish in order to give the car a more sophisticated look.

The Montero Sport 2020 model is equipped with 3.0-LITER V6 MIVEC engine. The high-displacement V6 engine supplies strong acceleration even when carrying heavy loads or traveling uphill. Thanks to the

8-speed automatic transmission – First from Mitsubishi Motors – improved fuel efficiency coupled with smoother, more luxurious drive is easily achieved.

Built for maximum stability and traction, the rugged frame and aerodynamically contoured body contribute to solid handling and stable highway performance.

Eclipse CrossThe Eclipse Cross’s beau-

tiful, dynamic form creates the same sense of excitement and inspiration as the diamond ring effect during a total eclipse. While stylish like a coupé, it’s unquestionably a Mitsubishi Motors SUV. The dynamic, sculpted form projects the explosive power of an athlete from sporty face to high-tech rear lamps. All harmonize in a

strong personality that drives you to explore. The fresh sur-prise of the body persists in the cabin where engineering passion culminates in sporty, dynamic refinement.

From distinctive horizontal instrument panel to shining silver trim and monotone color scheme, the cockpit welcomes you to a bold new experience with Display Audio and Head Up Display keeping you stim-ulated and informed. The newly developed 1.5L petrol turbo engine, it provides a pleasing response, high revo-l u t i o n s a n d s t r o n g acceleration.

Outlander The upgraded design of

Mitsubishi Outlander is stylish, with changes on the front and rear exterior design to give the

care more attract ive appearance. Both bumpers, front and rear, are extended while the radiator grill is wider with new headlamps feature LED lighting for both the high and low beams. The interior is refreshing silence and quality. Driving the OUTLANDER is a pleasurable experience heightened by quick,

responsive handling and high-quality craftsmanship.

The ride is also extremely quiet thanks to enhanced noise reduction measures that lower engine, road and wind noise. From generous cabin space and comfortable seating to quality materials and refined amenities, every detail contributes to your traveling joy.

A view of the interior and dashboard of a Mitsubishi car.

Rabobank joins lenders reviewing commodity trade financeBLOOMBERG

Rabobank Group is reviewing its commodity trade finance business, joining other major lenders in reconsidering their roles in an industry upended by recent trading scandals and the novel coronavirus.

The Dutch bank, best known for financing food and agricultural traders, is analyzing clients in its current portfolio. While it has no plans to exit the sector, it may choose not to finance some customers when facilities come up for renewal, sources said. “We continuously review the underlying business of trade and commodity

finance,” Rabobank spokesman Eric Lagerwey said by phone.

Some of the biggest com-modity and trade-finance lenders, including ABN Amro Bank NV, BNP Paribas SA and Societe Generale SA, are scaling back or even completely pulling out of the sector.

The move comes after a series of scandals involving com-modity traders from Asia to the Middle East and Argentina, while many trading houses faced financial stress as the pandemic hit commodity demand.

Rabobank took a hit from its exposure to companies including Argentina’s bankrupt soy-export giant Vicentin SAIC.

Lawyers representing Vicentin creditors, including the Utrecht-based bank, earlier this year asked a New York judge to sub-poena the company, saying they suspected about $400m of funds had been siphoned to sister firms, court papers showed.

“In terms of our interna-tional activities, Rabobank is a unique bank in the world that primarily focuses on serving the food chains,” Chief Executive Officer Wiebe Draijer (pic-tured) said on a August 13 con-ference call with journalists.

“We do see that it is a vol-atile business where you also see an impact over the cycles, but we have long-term

commitment to the food chain and the developments that are associated with it. What it spe-cifically means for the product offering and the type of service provided is of course an ongoing part of a review.”

Rabobank recently appointed Esther Berkelaar, one of its trade finance bankers in the Nether-lands, to a newly created position as head of risk for the unit.

QNB launches WhatsApp service to enhance customer experienceTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

QNB, the largest financial insti-tution in the Middle East and Africa, has launched QNB WhatsApp Service to provide customers with a wider range of banking products and services.

QNB WhatsApp banking will be a new channel that serves

QNB customers and the public by providing general infor-mation on the Bank’s products and services as well as a feature to message customer service agents for live support.

Customers can easily start using the QNB WhatsApp banking by downloading WhatsApp via IOS or Android

Stores and save the WhatsApp number +9744407777 in their contact list.

QNB provides unique digital banking services for its customers, including flexible transfers worldwide, sched-uling recurring transfers, bill payments, in addition to innovative and secure

solutions for Internet and Mobile Banking services.

QNB Group’s presence through its subsidiaries and associate companies extends to more than 31 countries across three continents pro-viding a comprehensive range of advanced products and services.

Dollar gains against euro for first week sincemid-June after key dataREUTERS - NEW YORK

The US dollar on Friday gained against the euro for the first week since mid-June after data showed a strong uptick in US business activity, while the single currency was held down as an August batch of European business surveys pointed to a stuttering economic recovery.

US business activity snapped back to the highest since early 2019 this month as companies in both the manu-facturing and services sectors saw a resurgence in new orders even as new COVID-19 cases remain stubbornly high across the country. “The Markit PMI flash readings show the US is outperforming Europe,” said Edward Moya (pictured), senior market analyst at OANDA in New York.

The data contrasted with weakness in the euro zone, as the pent-up demand unleashed last month by the easing of virus lockdowns dwindled.

“Clearly the PMI numbers this morning suggest that Europe is losing a little momentum here and that we’re seeing some tur-bulence in other areas of the global economy. So that is weighing on the performance gap between the US and its major counterparts,” said Karl

Schamotta, chief market strat-egist at Cambridge Global Payments.

The euro dipped to a one-week low of $1.175 against the greenback earlier, before rising back to $1.179, down 0.61 percent on the day.

The greenback escaped a ninth consecutive weekly decline that would marked the longest losing streak since the summer of 2010 and a run that has only happened five times since 1990.

The recovery in the dollar began on Wednesday after the Federal Open Market Com-mittee released minutes from its last meeting, the tone of which was more dovish than expected. The minutes prompted dollar bears to buy into the heavily shorted cur-rency, fueling its biggest one-day surge in more than two months.

The range of Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

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AFP — SPIELBERG

Pol Espargaro powered his KTM to a first ever elite pole position in Styrian MotoGP qualifying yesterday.

Japan’s Takaaki Nakagami sprang a surprise to set the second fastest time for Honda’s satellite LCR team to join the Spaniard in what will be his first top-tier front row appearance.

Placed third was Johann Zarco but rather than joining Espargaro and Nakagami at the head of the grid the Frenchman will be starting today’s race from the pitlane.

Zarco was penalised for “irresponsible riding” in a crash with Franco Morbidelli last week. He was back on his bike after sitting out Friday’s practice due to surgery on the wrist he injured in the collision.

Championship leader Fabio Quartararo failed to fire and sets off 10th for this fifth leg of the coronavirus-dis-rupted season.

This was the first time the Frenchman who won the opening two races in Jerez has finished off the front row since the British MotoGP last year.

In an ultra competitive session provisional pole changed ownership numerous times before Espargaro nailed

it in the dying seconds for KTM, the performance all the sweeter coming on home soil for the Austrian outfit.

“I fell really pleased with it,” beamed the maiden pole-sitter.

“I didn’t imagine we could do the pole, I was thinking for first or maybe second row it would be amazing for us.

“I was making mistakes in practice, so I’m super happy, and all the guys at KTM deserve this so much.”

In fourth came Joan Mirs and the Spaniard got an added bonus for his best ever quali-fying performance by filling Zarco’s place on the front row.

Italian legend Valentino Rossi had to settle for 15th after crashing in his final lap in Q1.

The 41-year-old nine-time world champion was badly shaken by last Sunday’s accident when Morbidelli’s stray bike flew across the track centimetres in front of him which “almost killed” him.

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Pol Espargaro during qualifying, yesterday.

World champion Marquez sidelined for at least two more months AFP — SPIELBERG

Reigning MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez (pictured) will be sidelined for another two to three months after fracturing his right arm in July’s season opener, ending any chance of the Spaniard defending his title.

“The objective of both Marquez and the Repsol Honda Team is to return to the World Championship when Marc’s arm has fully recovered from the serious injury that occurred in Jerez,” Honda said in a statement yesterday.

“It is estimated it will take between two to three months before Marc can return.”

The 2020 season is due to finish at the Portuguese Grand Prix on November 22, meaning

Marquez could conceivably miss the remainder of the cam-paign. Marquez, 27, has won the MotoGP title in six of the past seven seasons and each of the last four.

However, he has yet to score a single point this year after he was hurt in the first race of the season,

the Spanish Grand Prix on July 19.

“There has been a lot of talk about Marc’s recovery and the various deadlines, but from the first day after the second oper-ation we have said that the only objective that exists is for him to be one hundred percent,” said team manager Alberto Puig.

“We do not want to rush. Once Marc is in a position to return and compete at the level he knows, then we will think

about the next objective.” French rider Fabio

Quartararo of Yamaha-SRT leads the champi-onship standings with 67 points from four races, with Italy’s Andrea Dovizioso of Ducati 11 points behind in second.

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Espargaro, KTM celebrate maiden MotoGP pole in Styrian qualifying

Front row1. Pol Espargaro (ESP/KTM)

2. Takaaki Nakagami (JPN/Honda-LCR)

3. Joan Mir (ESP/Suzuki)

Second row4. Jack Miller (AUS/Ducati-Pramac)

5. Maverick Vinales (ESP/Suzuki)

6. Alex Rins (ESP/Suzuki)

Third row7. Miguel Oliveira (POR/KTM-Tech-3)

8. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA/Ducati)

9. Fabio Quartararo (FRA/Yamaha-SRT)

Fourth row10. Franco Morbidelli (ITA/Yamaha-SRT)

11. Danilo Petrucci (ITA/Ducati)

12. Iker Lecuona (ESP/KTM-Tech3)

SelectedFifth row

13: Brad Binder (AFS/KTM)

14. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha)

STYRIAN MOTOGP GRID

NBA: Clippers top Mavs to take lead, Doncic injuredREUTERS — NEW YORK

Kawhi Leonard recorded 36 points, nine rebounds and eight assists to lead the Las Angeles Clippers over the Dallas Mavericks 130-122 on Friday night to grab a 2-1 lead in a Western Conference first-round play-off series near Orlando.

Dallas star Luka Doncic fin-ished the game watching from the bench due to a sprained left ankle. Doncic had 13 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in 29 minutes, but he hit just 4 of 14 shots from the floor.

Landry Shamet scored 18 points, Ivica Zubac added 15 and Marcus Morris Sr. had 14 points to help the second-seeded Clippers move in front in the best-of-seven series. Kristaps Porzingis registered 34 points and 13 rebounds, Seth Curry added 22 on 9-of-11 shooting, and Tim Hardaway also scored 22 for the Mavericks.

Toronto Raptors 117 - Brooklyn Nets 92

Pascal Siakam scored 26 points, Fred VanVleet added 22 and Toronto Raptors never trailed in taking a commanding

lead over Brooklyn in their Eastern Conference first-round series.

The second-seeded Raptors own a 3-0 series edge for the first time in team history. They can close out the Nets tonight in Game 4.

The Nets’ Tyler Johnson was elevated to the starting lineup and scored a playoff career-high 23 points while starting for Joe Harris, who missed the game for personal reasons.

Boston Celtics 102 - Phil-adelphia 76ers 94

Boston made three key defensive plays down the stretch and overtook Phila-delphia to grab a 3-0 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round play-off series.

Kemba Walker scored a team-high 24 points, including a key jumper with 1:05

remaining that put third-seeded Boston up by four and set the stage for a possible sweep in the best-of-seven series. Game 4 is set for Sunday.

Joel Embiid led all scorers with 30 points for the sixth-seeded 76ers.

Utah Jazz 124 - Denver Nuggets 87

Mike Conley scored 27 points and Rudy Gobert added 24 points and 14 rebounds to power Utah to a 2-1 series lead over Denver in their first-round series in the Western Con-ference play-offs. Game 4 is on Sunday.

Donovan Mitchell added 20 points while Georges Niang scored a playoff career-high 16 points off the bench. Utah earned its second straight lop-sided victory over Denver after going 18-for-37 from 3-point range. Conley led the way, going a career-playoff-best 7-for-8 from long distance.

Nikola Jokic scored 15 points and Jamal Murray added 12 to lead the Nuggets. Both players added five rebounds and six assists. Denver shot just 37.5 percent from the floor, compared to 51.2 percent for the Jazz.

Los Angeles Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard (left) scores ahead of Dallas Mavericks’ Maxi Kleber during their play-off game.

Dallas star Luka Doncic finished the game watching from the bench due to a sprained left ankle. Doncic had 13 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in 29 minutes, but he hit just 4 of 14 shots from the floor.

Clinical England heap misery on PakistanAFP — SOUTHAMPTON

Zak Crawley converted his maiden Test hundred into a superb innings of 267 yesterday as England piled on the runs against Pakistan in their series finale at Southampton before James Anderson rocked the tourists with a late treble strike.

Crawley and Jos Buttler, who made 152, shared a stand of 359 that powered England to 583-8 declared on the second day of the third Test.

England, 1-0 up in a three-match contest and looking for

a first series win over Pakistan in a decade, then saw Anderson reduce the tourists to 24-3 at the close -- a deficit of 559 runs -- as he moved to within four of becoming the first paceman to take 600 wickets in Tests.

Shan Masood was plumb lbw for four before fellow opener Abid Ali (one) edged Anderson low to Dom Sibley at third slip.

And with what became the last ball of the day, Anderson had star batsman Babar Azam lbw for 11 with one that cut back.

Anderson had stumps figures of 3-13 in 5.5 overs.

England’s total was their highest in Tests since they made 589-8 declared against Pakistan at Old Trafford four years ago.

Three of Pakistan’s frontline bowlers conceded over 100 runs each, with leg-spinner Yasir Shah (2-173 from 39 overs) and teenage paceman Naseem

Shah (1-109 in 27) both going for more than four an over.

Crawley’s innings was the seventh highest maiden hundred in 143 years of Test-match cricket and the 10th highest score by any England batsman.

His partnership with Buttler was also a new England fifth-wicket record in Tests,

surpassing the 254 shared by Keith Fletcher and Tony Greig against India at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai in February 1973.

One of the few false shots of his innings saw Crawley, 186 not out at lunch, go to 200 when he edged a four past second slip off Naseem -- his 25th boundary in 331 balls.

But he still received applause from his team-mates in a match being played behind closed doors because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The 22-year-old Crawley was the seventh England batsman to turn his maiden Test hundred into a double century and the first since Rob Key against the West Indies at Lord’s in 2004.

Earlier, Buttler completed just the second hundred of his 47-match Test career and first as a wicketkeeper.

Crawley, advancing down the pitch, lofted Yasir over long-off for six before a clipped boundary off paceman Mohammad Abbas saw him to 250.

But his near 10-hour innings end when he was stumped down the legside by Mohammad Rizwan off part-time spinner Asad Shafiq.

Crawley faced 393 balls, hitting 34 fours and one six, in what was the 10th-highest Test score by an England batsman.

Together with Buttler, he had taken England from 127-4 to 486-5 against an increasingly ragged Pakistan.

England 1st InningsR. Burns c Masood b Afridi ................................6

D. Sibley lbw b Yasir Shah ................................22

Z. Crawley st Rizwan b Shafiq ...................... 267

J. Root c Rizwan b Naseem Shah .................... 29

O. Pope b Yasir Shah ........................................... 3

J. Buttler c and b Alam ....................................152

C. Woakes c Yasir Shah b Alam ...................... 40

D. Bess not out ...................................................27

S. Broad b Afridi ................................................. 15

Extras (b4, lb13, nb4, w1) ................................22

Total (8 wkts dec, 154.4 overs, 671m) 583Did not bat: J Archer, J Anderson

Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Burns), 2-73 (Sibley), 3-114

(Root), 4-127 (Pope), 5-486 (Crawley), 6-530

(Buttler), 7-547 (Woakes), 8-583 (Broad)

Bowling: Afridi 33.4-5-121-2 (3nb, 1w); Abbas

33-8-82-0; Yasir 39-3-173-2; Naseem 27-6-109-

1; Alam 12-0-46-2; Masood 3-1-11-0; Shafiq 7-0-

24-1 (1nb)

Pakistan 1st InningsShan Masood lbw b Anderson ..........................4

Abid Ali c Sibley b Anderson ...............................1

Azhar Ali not out ..................................................4

Babar Azam lbw b Anderson ...........................11

Extras (b1, lb1, w2) ..............................................4

Total (3 wkts, 10.5 overs, 55 mins) 24To bat: Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Mohammad

Rizwan, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Shaheen

Afridi, Naseem Shah

Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Masood), 2-11 (Abid), 3-24

(Babar)

Bowling: Anderson 5.5-1-13-3; Broad 3-1-6-0;

Archer 2-0-3-0 (1w)

Match position: Pakistan are 559 runs behind

with seven first-innings wickets standing

SCOREBOARD

England’s Zak Crawley plays a shot on the second day of the third Test match against Pakistan yesterday. INSET: James Anderson (left) celebrates with Dom Bess after taking the wicket of Pakistan’s Abid Ali.

THE PENINSULA – DOHA

Al Duhail’s President H E Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani has praised the team and all members of the club following their QNB Stars League 2019-2020 title triumph, hoping for more achievements from the Red Knights in the future.

In his congratulatory message, the Al Duhail Pres-ident said: “The team succeeded in achieving the league title despite all the difficulties. I con-gratulate the players and all my brothers in the club, and also the technical and administrative staff for this achievement.”

Al Duhail sealed the title on Friday after a 1-0 victory over Al Ahli, finishing their campaign with 16 wins, 4 draws and two losses. Al Rayyan finished second with 14 wins, six draws and a defeat while Al Sadd, the 14-time champions finished third.

Sheikh Khalifa said the management will continue to support the team and provide good atmosphere in which the players can compete with motivation.

“The management will always be close to the players and provide them with the atmosphere that motivates them to work strongly. Now our focus has shifted completely to the rest of the competitions before the start of the new season, as there is an important match waiting us in the semi-final of the Amir Cup, and also our matches in the AFC Cham-pions league, and God willing, the team will achieve good results,” he said.

It wasn’t an easy sailing for Al Duhail during the season as they suffered injuries to their key players including striker Yousef Msakni, Assim Madibo and Bassam Al Rawi. The team also saw a change in man-agement with Walid Regragui replacing Rui Faria as head coach.

Al Duhail Vice-President, Khalifa Khamis Al Sulaiti said the QSL title is a result of teamwork by all members of the club.

“ This season was not easy but the team remained deter-mined and achieved the results we hoped for. Now all our focus is on the coming challenges,” he said.

Al Duhail’s Executive Director Adnan Al Ali said the team deserved to be crowned the champions because of their consistent performance despite the injury challenges.

Meanwhile, Al Duhail’s players were also ecstatic after lifting the Falcon Shield.

“We had one goal from the

beginning, which was to regain the league shield, which was very difficult. Thank God for what has been achieved and I am happy with the team’s con-tinued successes,” said striker Ismail Mohammed.

Al Duhail left back Sultan Al Breik said: “We deserved the title. I’m proud of my contri-bution as well as that of my col-leagues towards winning the QNB Stars League shield during the 2019-20 season, which was a difficult mission.”

Mohammed Al Bakri said: “I am proud of the team’s success in winning the league title this season after a long and difficult journey during which we demonstrated our ability to emerge on top. The team played well in all other tournaments, be it domestic or AFC Cham-pions League.”

I extend my sincere congratulations to Al Duhail club, its players, technical as well as administrative staff and all its employees for emerging as superior this season and winning the well-deserved league shield after a fierce competition that went down till the last week: Hani Taleb Ballan, CEO of Qatar Stars League

This season was not easy but the team remained determined and achieved the results we hoped for. Now all our focus is on the coming challenges: Al Duhail Vice-President, Khalifa Khamis Al Sulaiti

This was not an easy title to win, specially in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic that stopped the competitions for a long period. But the team succeeded in keeping the top place of the League after returning despite a fierce challenge from Al Rayyan team: Al Duhail coach Walid Regragui

The team succeeded in achieving the league title despite all the difficulties. I congratulate the players and all my brothers in the club, and also the technical and administrative staff for this achievement.The management will always be close to the players and provide them with the atmosphere that motivates them to work strongly. Now our focus has shifted completely to the rest of the competitions before the start of the new season, as there is an important match waiting us in the semi-final of the Amir Cup, and also our matches in the AFC Champions league, and God willing, the team will achieve good results: Al Duhail’s President H E Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani

19SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020 SPORT

‘Proud’ Al Duhail relish QSL title triumph

Regragui : Despite The Absences , The Team Succeeded In Winning The Title

QSL CEO congratulates champions Al DuhailTHE PENINSULA – DOHA

Hani Taleb Ballan (pictured), CEO of Qatar Stars League (QSL), congratulated the Board of Directors of Al Duhail club on becoming the champions on Friday.

He said, “On behalf of all staff of the QSL, I extend my sincere congratulations to Al Duhail club, its players, technical as well as administrative staff and all its employees for emerging as

superior this season and winning the well-deserved league shield after a fierce competition that went down till the last week."

"I also praise the level of com-petition exhibited by all teams for various positions in the table resulting from the readiness of clubs and players, and the great professionalism they’ve achieved besides reflecting on the strength and stature of QNB Stars League,” Balan said.

The QSL CEO also praised the

professionalism and discipline of all staff, clubs and players during the season in general and during the pandemic, which led to a number of pre-cautionary measures taken by the authorities concerned when football activity was stopped and all parties demon-strated utmost responsi-bility and commitment by adhering to the General Protocol and approved plan.

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Regragui : Despite The Absences , The Team Succeeded In Winning The Title

THE PENINSULA – DOHA

Al Duhail coach Walid Regragui yesterday credited the collective effort of everyone at the club for his maiden title triumph at the QNB Stars League.

The Moroccan expressed his happiness with the league title and congratulated eve-ryone, including the club President.

“I congratulate His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad, the club’s President, and all the members of the Board of Directors and the players who helped me achieving my first

title with the club. This was not an easy title to win, specially in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic that stopped the com-petitions for a long period. But the team suc-ceeded in keeping the top place of the League after returning despite a fierce challenge from Al Rayyan team." Regragui said.

“I congratulate all my team-mates in the coaching and medical staff on the big efforts. We played our last match and we were missing the services of Msakni, Ahmed Yasser and Madibo and also the new professional Dudu," Regragui said.

Coach Regragui credits collective effort for his maiden QSL silverware

Yacine Brahimi (Al Rayyan)

Akram Afif (Al Sadd)

Top scorers

15

RK PLAYER TEAM GOALS (PEN)

1. Akram Afif Al Sadd 15 (5)

Yacine Brahimi Al Rayyan 15 (4)

3. Baghdad Bounedjah Al Sadd 14 (4)

4. Ramin Rezaeian Al Shahaniya 13 (6)

5. Mohamed Benyettou Al Wakrah 11 (1)

Sofiane Hanni Al Gharafa 11 (4)

7. Ahmed Alaaeldin Al Gharafa 10 (0)

Hamdi Harbaoui Al Arabi 10 (4)

9. Tiago Bezerra Al Khor SC 9 (2)

10. Hasan Al Haydos Al Sadd 8 (1)

Mohammed Muntari Al Duhail SC 8 (1)

12. Almoez Ali Al Duhail SC 7 (3)

Abel Hernández Al Ahli Doha 7 (0)

Jonathan Kodjia Al Gharafa 7 (1)

Pierre-Michel Lasogga Al Arabi 7 (1)

16. Karim Ansarifard Al Sailiya 6 (1)

Edmilson Al Duhail SC 6 (0)

Ahmed Hamoudane Al Khor SC 6 (0)

Abdulaziz Hatem Al Rayyan 6 (0)

Kayke Rodrigues Qatar SC 6 (0)

21. Mahmoud Al Mawas Umm Salal 5 (1)

Raúl Becerra Umm Salal 5 (0)

Nabil El Zhar Al Ahli Doha 5 (3)

Mohamed Elneel Al Arabi 5 (0)

Jean-Paul Késsé Al Shahaniya 5 (0)

Lucca Al Khor SC 5 (1)

Sardor Rashidov Qatar SC 5 (0)

Rodrigo Tabata Al Rayyan/Al Sadd 5 (0)

14Baghdad

Bounedjah (Al Sadd)

Al Duhail players throw coach

Walid Regragui in the air as they

celebrate the QSL title victory

on Friday.

SPORT | 18

Clinical England heap misery

on Pakistan in third Test

SPORTCoach Regragui credits collective effort for his maiden QSL title

SPORT | 19

SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2020

'Transformed' PSG allow Qatar to bask in limelightAFP – LISBON

If Paris Saint-Germain beat Bayern Munich in today’s Champions League final in Lisbon, the pictures will probably be of Neymar’s tears of joy or wild scenes of celebration in the French capital, but basking in the glory of it all will be the Amir of Qatar.

The club’s first appearance in the final of Europe’s elite club competition comes in the month it celebrates its 50th birthday, yet the starting point for all this was June 30, 2011.

That was when Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) bought PSG, with its President Nasser Al Khelaifi promising to make the club “a great team and a strong brand on the international scene”.

PSG recently won their seventh French title in eight seasons and their fourth domestic treble in six years.

Now, after half a dozen seasons of under-whelming performances on the continental stage, they are through to the biggest and most prestigious club game of all.

“Since we arrived here, the Champions League has been our dream, and we are close to fulfilling our dream now,” Khelaifi said after the team beat RB Leipzig in the semi-final.

PSG were big before QSI -- under the own-ership of French pay TV giant Canal Plus in the 1990s, with stars like George Weah, they won the league in 1994 and reached the Cham-pions League semi-finals a year later.

They lifted their only European trophy to date, the Cup Winners’ Cup, in 1996.

But by 2011 this was a club in dire straits.They had just finished fourth in Ligue 1 but

a year earlier came 13th.Crowds at the Parc des Princes were down

with the club having stopped selling tickets to members of two rival supporters’ groups because of hooliganism problems.

Under Khelaifi, a revered figure in Qatar, PSG are effectively a different club.

It took them just two years to shoot up to fifth place in Deloitte’s Football Money League. Their revenue in 2012/13 was just under €400m ($471m), having quadrupled in the short time under QSI.

Only Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern and Manchester United sat before them.

That season PSG returned to the Cham-pions League after eight years away and won their first Ligue 1 title of the Qatar era.

They made the marquee signing of David Beckham. Huge commercial deals were signed with the Qatar Tourism Authority and Qatari mobile provider Ooredoo.

Deloitte’s most recent figures put them fifth again with revenue of €635.9m.

PSG committed the two biggest transfer fees in history, signing Neymar from Barcelona for €222m and Kylian Mbappe from Monaco for €180m, in 2017.

The club has spent, in total, an estimated €1.3bn on transfer fees alone in these nine years.

On the streets in Doha, there is still more focus on the English Premier League than on PSG, although interest is growing.

The PSG store in Doha’s Villaggio mall was this week emblazoned with a poster pro-claiming “WE ARE PARIS -- LISBOA 2020” covering half the shopfront.

It is not just Paris -- Qatar Airways has a sleeve sponsorship deal with Bayern and took to Twitter labelling the final as the #Qlassico.

Stage set for blockbuster showdownPSG and Bayern Munich target Champions League glory

AFP – LISBON

The Paris Saint-Germain of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe are one game away from winning a first UEFA Champions League that would cap their rise to the status of one of the world’s most powerful clubs, but a fearsome Bayern Munich led by the prolific Robert Lewandowski stand in their way in today’s final.

It is a mouthwatering showdown between two of the European con-tinent’s super-clubs, two teams not used to losing, but one which will be played out behind closed doors inside the cavernous Estadio da Luz in Lisbon.

In the year of the coronavirus pandemic, this Champions League will perhaps always carry an asterisk next to it, after the delay of five months in getting the round of 16 completed and the introduction of a ‘Final Eight’ tournament in Portu-gal’s capital, with one-off ties in the quarter-finals and semi-finals and no supporters allowed in.

Almost all the sense of occasion is lost from the relatively calm streets of Lisbon in the build-up, and the atmosphere at kick-off in Ben-fica’s 65,000-seat ground will be at best surreal, at worst sad.

None of that takes away from the significance of the occasion for two clubs who seek validation from the Champions League and the prestige surrounding it.

Nine years after the Qatari takeover which transformed them, PSG have finally made it this far.

They can become just the second French representative to win club football’s biggest prize, 27 years after Marseille won the inaugural edition of the modern Champions League.

It is a battle between the nouveau riche and one of the great names of the European football aris-tocracy -- Bayern are appearing in their 11th final.

The Germans have won the trophy five times, most recently in 2013. Four starters from that 2-1 final win over Borussia Dortmund at Wembley -- goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, Jerome Boateng, David Alaba and Thomas Mueller -- are in line to start here.

When, in 1974, Bayern won the first of three successive European Cups, a young PSG outfit were only just

winning promotion to France’s top flight.

A year later, captain Franz Beckenbauer lifted the trophy at PSG’s Parc des Princes after Bayern beat Leeds United in the final. Twelve months after that, they defeated Saint-Etienne, the great French side of the era, to win it again. Leaving aside their storied past, Bayern are the most formi-dable team in Europe just now.

Their 3-0 semi-final win over Lyon was their 20th consecutive victory. They are unbeaten in 29 matches since December last year under their unassuming coach Hansi Flick.

They have already pocketed a German league and cup

double, with the Bundesliga title

their eighth in a row. They have won all 10 matches in the C h a m p i o n s League this

season. They have scored 42 goals in those matches, including a 7-2 win away to Tottenham Hotspur and the 8-2 quarter-final demo-lition of Barcelona.

Lewandowski has 55 goals this season. But he is more than ably supported.

Bayern take the risk of playing with a dangerously high defensive line. Yet it remains to be seen if they can afford to take that risk against PSG’s thrilling attack of Neymar, Mbappe and Angel Di Maria.

PSG, under German coach Thomas Tuchel, utterly dominate in France and finally seem to have found a winning formula in Europe, gaining admi-ration from Beckenbauer himself.

"They're one heck of a team," he told Bayern's website.

PSG were too strong for RB

Leipzig in the semi-finals, winning 3-0.

They have lost once since November 1, last year, and they overturned that 2-1 reverse in Dortmund in the last 16 by winning the return leg. Neymar finally seems happy. Mbappe is still feeling the after-effects of an ankle injury but

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Paris Saint-Germain’s players taking part in a training session ahead of their UEFA Champions League final against Bayern Munich in Lisbon.

Bayern Munich players during a training session at the Estadio da

Luz in Lisbon, Portugal,

yesterday.

Two years in a row suffering

an injury in crucial moments

for me and for my team. Now I

am fully fit, uninjured, and able

to help my teammates in the best

possible way. I’m incredibly happy.

I’m very, very happy: Neymar

PSG President Nasser Al Khelaifi